74 
Mi 
a 


ok 














* 
, 
’ - J " 
Py 
Sy cy 4 
s - 
{ ‘ 
x 
~ 
- ts P 
aS he Sts 2 
>. ~~ 
’ 4 aon) 
‘ “4 a 
3 a 
* “3 ‘ = 
hm of 
‘ " ‘ 
‘ ~~ 
* - . 
: a ~T 
Ke = 
- "i ; 








¢ 


_ 
7a 
“, 

we. 

‘a! - 


nae | 








(ele 
OLD-WORLD HOUSE 









r | 
‘ 
, ; 
AGENTS 
America . . . . THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
- 64 & 66 Filth Avenue, NEW YORK ? 
Australasia . . . OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oe 


205 Flinders Lane, MELBOURNE 
Canada. . . . . THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTO — 
St. Martin’s House, 70 Bond Street, TORONTO. 
India . . + . MACMILLAN AND COMPANY, LTD ~ 
Macmillan Building, BOMBAY 
309 Bow bazaar Street, CALCUTTA 
Indian Bank Buildings. MADRAS 


= 












WF : Ceci 
ORL 
A HOUSE ee 


YQ) 
RD) FURNITURE & DECORATION 


RS B 
fe ~ 










UTHOR OF 


si ce OODWORK,” 
CLOCKS,” 
care TURE, ETG., EPC, 
ty 
A) 
VOLUME I 
NS 
* C) 
CENC & 
ae 


jo. (Or 10;, AeibyAtG) AC AN DE 


PA) 
S 4 
\G : i 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1 
= i 





VW | 


BRE ACC E 





; Cana VERY hobby begets its own vocabulary, and col- 


lecting is no exception to the rule. Thus we find 
the word “antique”? promoted from adjective to 


yess 


fox] Noun when applied to furniture and works of art. 
m a, Presumably, the language we use is ours, for the 
3 time being, to do what we like with; but when we 
employ it as current coin for purposes of exchange of ideas, to pass 
on to others, we must not complain if confusion arise owing to 
looseness of meaning or ambiguity of expression. He who writes 
a book owes it to his readers to define the terms which he intends 
to use. 

I propose to commence with that much-abused word “ collector.” 
True, one is a collector if he merely collect, but the name also implies 
a person who has formed a collection. Of what? ‘There must be 
an implied limitation, as no one can collect everything. That is 
just the distinction between the collector and the dustman. One 
distinguishes, the other does not. Yet, in a general sense, both 
collect, if it be only rubbish and household refuse. The cynic might 
retort that in the case of the average furniture collector there is 
here a distinction without a real difference in many cases, and I have 
known instances where he would have been right. 

It is quite a usual thing to meet one who has furnished his house, 
in greater part, with examples of English antique furniture, of all 
periods, who persists in speaking of his “‘ collection.” Surely this is a 
misuse of a term, unless we are using the word in the same sense as 
the dustman just referred to. One has collected his possessions ; 


Vv 


vi ‘(PREFACE 


true, but so has the other. It may be pointed out that the difference 
is one of value, but I have heard of fortunes found in the dustbin. 

As I understand the word, a collection necessarily implies a limi- 
tation, more or less. One may be a collector of books, but we look 
for a statement of his particular sphere, as “‘ penny dreadfuls”’ may also 
be included among books. Does he collect bindings, manuscripts, 
prose, poetry, old books or new books, first editions, books in English or 
other languages, Grangerised editions, or what? If he reply, merely 
‘* books,” we begin to wonder what public building he charters to 
house his collection. ‘The British Museum will be too small. 

I am concerned, in this book, with English furniture and examples 
of art-craftsmanship allied thereto, and in the endeavour to avoid 
ambiguity, I am at a loss for a word. A house-full of furniture is 
not a collection without severe limitation, such as one rarely, if ever, 
finds. We mean an assortment, when we use the term. 

I have written this book as a guide for those who desire to furnish 
their houses with English furniture of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries. ‘To go back to the Tudor period is to take the book out 
of the range of the practical; ‘Tudor furniture does not exist out of 
museums or collections, using the latter word in its true sense. 
“ Fakes” abound, ot course, but I am assuming, for the moment, 
that our collector desires only genuine pieces. 

With this modest idea in mind, I cannot claim that this book will 
be of value to the advanced collector. In the following pages will be 


’ on how to detect forgeries, for instance. Apart, 


found no “ hints ’ 
entirely, from the limited scope here available, I would not write such 
a chapter even if I could, as even if such information could be imparted 
in the pages of a book (which I deny, as it is analogous to a surgeon 
attempting to explain an intricate surgical operation for the informa- 
tion of the layman whose only equipment consists in the possession 
of the usual instruments of the operating theatre) any such hints 


? 


would be of far greater value to the “ faker,’ and would therefore 


‘"PPREFACEH vu 


be obsolete almost as soon as they were published. Only one unable 
to differentiate between the genuine and the spurious would venture 
to write such chapters, on the principle that there is nothing more 
venturesome than ignorance. 

It is customary—or it should be—for an author who writes a 
book which purports to be a work of reference, to outline briefly, in 
his preface, not only the field he intends to cover, but also what he 
proposes to exclude. Every book of this kind should have such a 
foreword, and the intending purchaser should, as a recognised custom, 
be permitted to read the preface as a free sample before buying. 
It ought to be an indictable offence for an author to write, and a 
publisher to issue, a book with a preface which misleads or promises 
more than the book performs. 

I have attempted here to write a book which, I hope, will be a 
useful guide to those who desire to furnish their houses with either 
originals or copies of English antique furniture. I do not admire 
antiquity merely as such. If a piece possess no other merit than 
mere age, it falls, in my judgment, into the same category as a 
derelict dog-kennel; it is time the owner invested in a new one, if 
only for the sake of the dog. Yet a copy of an art work is not the 
same thing as the original—that is, if the example can claim real artistic 
merit—and for much the same reason that a coloured print of a famous 
picture is not as desirable a possession as the picture itself. The one 
is a creation, the other is a copy. Something must be allowed for 
spontaneity, and there is a subtle spirit in an original which the copy 
always loses. 

I have appealed in these pages—I hope not without some success 
—to home-lovers, to those with a reverence for the work of bygone 
days, who desire to live with their possessions and to make the most 
of them; “to trick them out with brave array.” ‘The intention 1s to 
show what to strive for, and at the same time what to avoid. Some 
houses are kind to one style or period, some to another. ‘There are 


Vill "PREFACE 


others (and they are not the exception, unfortunately), which are 
gracious to none. The lover of English antique furniture, if he or 
she be wise, will pass these houses by, on the other side, like the 
Pharisee of old, although, I hasten to add, not for the same reason. 
Let the modern house-furnisher do his best—or his worst—with 
them; I have no use for the “ four-square”? room in which the 
average commercial builder delights, where each side is indexed by 
its three fellows. There is no greater charm than the unexpected; 
where the happenings of generations have produced a result, in quaint 
corner and nook, which the modern builder would not dare to imitate. 
I offer no criticism of the modern house; ‘‘ to those who like them, 
they are just the houses they like,” I have mo doubt, lehay ae 
uncomfortable feeling, however, that many who inhabit them do so 
for the same reason which guided the immortal Hobson in making 
his choice. 

To state that this book is intended as a guide to the collector of 
English antique furniture involves an assumption of dignity to which 
I do not aspire. Collecting, in the true sense of the word—that is, 
the gathering together of works of art which possess an additional 
monetary value solely by reason of their rarity—is almost ignored 
in these pages. I have written no chapters on “ fakes” and little 
about “‘ prices ” or any of the other stock paraphernalia which readers 
of this type of collecting-handbook are supposed to demand. I 
believe there is a type of collector who knows the price of everything 
and the value of nothing, but I do not want to make his acquaintance. 
I could not write an honest chapter on ‘‘ fakes” and how to detect 
them, and I have never known an author who could, for reasons 
which must be obvious. I have known many who have tried, never- 
theless. ‘The dealing fraternity who push up prices, and the faker, 
tread very closely on the heels of the expert or the writer of books on 
art-work subjects ! 


Whether this book be really informative or no, I must leave to 


PREFACE 1 


the judgment of my readers. I can say that I have tried, honestly, 
to impart such knowledge as I possess, as the result of some thirty 
years of practical experience. If I am not equipped, then the years 
have been sadly wasted. Many of the ideas are, necessarily, the 
expression of my own individual taste (they could not well be other- 
wise), and as such, may not be acceptable to others, but in every 
notion there may be some suggestion; one is not obliged to swallow 
every idea en bloc. ‘Those expressed in these pages may act as a 
foundation on which others may erect their own superstructure. A 
sign-post points the way to a place; it does not compel one to go 


there. It has also been remarked that the sign-post does not go there 
either ! 


lee AOS 





INTRODUCTORY: SOMETHING ABOUT THE HousE 


Tue Oxtp-Wortp House 


Tue Decoration oF Rooms 


FLoors AND THEIR COVERINGS 


Tue DEVELOPMENT OF Tyres IN FURNITURE 


CHAPTER VI 


Woop PANELLINGS FOR THE Oxtp-Wortp Howse 


CHAPTER Vii 


GO UNw Te EaNs Leo 


VO I2U M Est 


CHAPTER I 


CHAPTER II 


CHAPTER IIT 


CHAPTER IV 


CHAP LERSY: 


Pre-ReFORMATION GoTHiIc FURNITURE = 


Encuish Oak Cuatrs 
EncusH Oak Tastes 
Cuests, CoFFERS, AND CUPBOARDS OF THE Oak Periop 
CHAPTER XI 

MarqQueTERIE FuRNITURE 


Lacquer Work 


Watnut Cuairs oF 1660-1700 


INDEX 


CHAPTER. Vill 


CHAPTER IX 


CHAPTER X 


CHAPTER XIII 


CHAPTER XIV 


Prain Watnut FurNITURE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 


CHAPTER SXII 


xi 


PAGE 


cab) 


295 







“‘ Wistaria blossoms trail and fall 
Above the length of barrier wall ; 
And softly, now and then, an 
The shy, staid-breasted doves will flit 
From roof to gateway-top, and sit 
And watch the ways of men.’ 


* 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


VOLUME I 


GHAPRUE RS! 
INTRODUCTORY : SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOUSE 


}y. F marriages are made in heaven, they are certainly 





sae, worn on earth, and, as often as not, frayed to pieces 
a at in the home. Probably the last thing which the 
SI.) educationalist will learn, or appreciate, is the civilis- 
4 ing influence of domestic life, and the part which 
1 the home plays in the educational development of a 
nation. It is possible, of course, that the joy of life or of intellectual 
recreation may be experienced in a hovel—everything is possible— 
but it is safer not to risk the happiness of future years by trying the 
experiment, Diogenes notwithstanding. 
What are the amenities of the average middle-class house? Is it 
a place to live in, and while in it, to be glad to be alive, or is it one to 
get away from as soon and as rapidly as possible? Let us take the 
testimony of the average house agent, who, in his own terms, “ has 
inspected the property personally.” He ought to know, if anyone 
does. He begins his description of it, as a rule, by stating that it is 
only a short distance from a railway station, from whence fast trains 
are frequent to town and all parts of the country; it 1s near to trams 
and omnibuses, possesses a garage in which a car can be housed—to 
assist in the flight from the personally inspected house. These are 
the amenities. ‘To say that this is only a portion of the usual descrip- 
tion is true, but it is frequently the main, and it is always the first. 
Is the house livable? Is there a fine old-world atmosphere about it ? 
Will the purchaser feel that once at home he will leave it with regret ? 


The agent is silent on these points, and if he committed himself to 
I E 


2 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


any statement on these important matters, I, for one, would not 
believe him. 

If my lot in life had cast me for the profession of a house agent, 
I should set forth the charms of the houses I had to sell—that is, if I 
conscientiously thought they were worth buying and would be a joy 
to the possessor instead of a necessary nuisance. I should commence 
the description of my choicest properties with a recommendation 
that to get away from them was a matter of trouble and time, and I 
should enlarge on the advantages of this fact, and on the distance 
from a railway station, and the absence of a stable or a garage. 

He who judges quickly, with the usual result attendant on hasty 
conclusions, might infer, from the foregoing, that the house agent 
was a pet aversion of mine. On the contrary, he is, and has always 
been, my best friend, and I know he is not in the habit,.as a rule, of 
taking good-humoured banter as a serious offence, even when stratified 
with a layer or two of truth. The agent, as a rule, caters for his 
clients; he would be a fool if he did not. The average man demands 
accessibility to town—whether London or some other commercial 
grinding-mill matters not here. The agent tells him, therefore, 
how easily he can get away from 
the house which is offered for sale. 
If the average man were in the 
habit of wearing a couple of silk 
hats as footgear, one on each foot, 
the hatter would expatiate on the 
wearing qualities of 4is hats. Can 
you blame him? 

I have illustrated, in the next 
chapter, views of several charming 
houses—at least, I think they are. 
My friends the house agents have 
supplied me with photographs of 
properties which they have on 
their books, and I would not 
willingly bite the feeding hand. 





SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOUSE 3 


The fault is not in the agent, it is in you, my unknown house- 
hunting friend (my friend, I hope). You do not know what to ask 
for, and the agent wonders what, in the name of goodness, you want, 
but is much too polite, as a general rule, to put it thus bluntly, 
leaving it for me to be rude on his behalf, which I am, gladly, in a 
spirit of gratitude and friendship. 

The making of an interesting home implies two factors, the first 
of which is generally conceded, the second seldom admitted. ‘These 
are the knowledge and skill on the part, say, of a decorative expert 
who is employed to produce a result, and the taste of the owner to 
appreciate it when made. ‘The expert must be contented either 
with the approval of the elect or the mob; he cannot have both. 
To take an example. I have a friend who has eighteen chairs in his 
dining-room, all of the one kind and period; mahogany Chippendale, 
ladder-backs, yet no two are exactly alike. ‘To me, the collection is a 
never-failing source of interest. It possesses that principle of variety 
which is the basis of all charm in the home. Yet I have heard criti- 
cisms levelled at these chairs on this account alone, from persons who 
must have everything to accord, whose poodle dog must match their 
socks or neckties in colour. To my mind, there is nothing more 
execrable, and more fundamentally wrong, 
than this idea of “matching.” I hate the 
fie esuite ; the stock parlance of the 
furniture salesman. His goods do not sell 
on their merits, obviously, otherwise there 
would be no such thing as a good salesman 
as compared with a badone. Heis there, 
as a rule, to sell you, not what you want, 
but something which is “‘ just as good ”— 
as if anything could be “just as good” 
as the thing which you want. I may 
mention that those eighteen chairs took a 
good many years to get together. They 
were bought in all parts of the country, 
and at widely varying prices. None were 





4 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


expensive, as the owner is a man of modest 
means, who could not afford a fancy price 
for the “joy” of having all the eighteen 
of the one pattern. 

There are two other points which need 
emphasising; the first is that tastes vary 
with different individuals, and that personal 
predilections may change, in the course of 
years, with the same person. The expert 
has the option, therefore, of creating what 
the client requires—or thinks he does—or 
to aim at a scheme of decoration and 
furnishing which may be appreciated later, 
when the necessary taste has been acquired. 
I have encountered many, in the course of 
my business life, who were quite definite in 
their instructions, and yet were the first to blame the professional 
man, who had acted upon them, for the result obtained. It was not 
that the explanation was vague; the necessary knowledge and ex- 
perience were absent. I am sorry to have to say that the gentle 
sex 1s by far the worst offender in this respect, as arule. There are 
some exceptions, of course, and of these 
I can number several who are born 
creators of the home beautiful, but the 
average woman—and | say this deliber- 
ately—attempts to gloss over an atroci- 
ously decorated room, or a spoiled house, 





by the use of gewgaws. This type is 
especially prone to accumulate rather 
than to collect, in much the same way 
as a magpie does. The favourite term, 
used ad nauseam, is “I picked that up,” 
oblivious of the fact that anyone with 
the smallest modicum of artistic sense 
would have let it lie—where it ought to 





SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOUSE 5 


remain—on the rubbish heap. Such 
women, as a rule, love a bargain; they 
simply cannot resist a thing which ap- 
pears cheap—and usually is, and looks it. 

To say that there is a considerable 
preponderance of mankind to whom 
an artistic home has no appeal, is to 
state a regrettable truth. Whether 
Because Of inherited or acquired 
nomadic instincts, or that the pursuit 
of wealth has left no time nor inclina- 
tion for more gentle pursuits, or for 
a hundred other reasons, the fact 
remains. ‘There is also a considerable 
minority who have the artistic sense, 
but not the means; the ‘ 





‘ champagne 
appetite with the beer income,” as the expressive slang phrase puts 
it. At the other extreme, while admitting at once that the successful 
home is often spoiled for want of money—fine things are necessarily 
expensive, and they can rarely be bought from fools—I have seen 
many which have been ruined for the 
opposite reason; too much has been spent 
upon them. I have known men, with the 
necessary equipment for making a pretty, 
modest home, who have expended large 
sums, and have acquired a grandiose and 
dismal palace or a miniature museum. 
There is the other sort, to which I have 
already alluded in my preface, to whom 
everything has a price, yet nothing has a 
true value. This kind is a nuisance to 
itself, and everybody else, dealers included. 
Throughout the following pages I have 
illustrated examples of English furniture © 
from the one standpoint of beauty of line, 





6 THE OLD-WORLDVAOUSE 


proportion, or design. Whether such furniture be original or “ fake” 
does not trouble me here in any way. I am considering furniture 
solely from the decorative side, and for this purpose I would sooner 
have a good copy than a bad original. But such copy must be fine; 
it must not be, as copies usually are, a bad travesty of the kind which 
is made and sold commercially as a general rule. If there be any 
merit in the original it is because it is a creation, something upon 
which the craftsman has expended thought and time, and on which 
he has exercised an eye trained to appreciate a correct line and a fine 
proportion. In an obviously lesser degree I demand the same from 
the copyist, but just because so little is required, that little is almost 
invariably left out. I have no objection to a copyist altering or 
modifying his model if the departure be an improvement; in fact, I 
would applaud such an effort. After all, the dwarf on the shoulders of 
the giant can see farther than the giant himself. But for the “just as 
good”? or the “that willdo” kind of workman I have no manner of use, 
and should havenomercy. His ‘‘improvements”’ on fine originals are so 
much mere effrontery; ignorant impertinence such as the musical hack 
possesses who attempts to rewrite or “‘improve”’ Beethoven or Schubert. 
I have given, in the succeeding chapters, some brief historical 
account of the various styles and the well-known craftsmen, as this 
z knowledge is a necessary part, not only of the 

equipment of the decorator or furnisher, 
but also, be it noted, of the client, if the 
latter 1s to appreciate his possessions. I 
do not say that all are compelled to like 
the work of one period, or of any, but I 
do ask those who may possess latent taste 
to foster its development. If, finally, it 
be discovered that they possess none, there 
is not much harm done. It is better to 
aim at a home which will be appreciated 
more and more than to create some- 
thing which pleases for the moment 
yet becomes irksome after a while. The 





SOMETHING ABOUT THE HOUSE 7 


“ popular ” writer 


is just the difference between the music of the 
and the Ninth Symphony, for example. It is also the reason, 
perhaps, why the cheap ballad sells in its thousands, although in- 
finitely dearer, bulk for bulk, paper for paper, than the works of 
Bach, Beethoven, or Brahms, while a fine library of classical music 
can be bought for a few pounds, yet rarely is. ‘‘ Against stupidity 
the gods war in vain,” said Goethe, but only after he had made 


many attempts and suffered many defeats. Hznc tlle lacrime ! 





CHAP RE Regtr 
THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 









NE of my privileges is to know an elderly gentle- 
woman (in the true sense of the word) whose family 
has owned and lived in the same house for some 
two hundred and fifty years. Each generation has 
added something—a wing here, a room there, 
nothing with any settled plan, considering only the 

needs of the moment. ‘That great architect, Time, has blended all 

together, and has surrounded the house with smooth lawns, gracious 
gardens, and stately trees. There is nothing of lofty dignity any- 
where; no room is of greater height than eight or nine feet at the 
most, yet there is a quiet character, unmistakable yet elusive. The 
early years of the eighteenth century saw the creation of the long, 
low drawing-room—or parlour, as its present owner insists—with 
its simple moulded wainscotting of white painted deal from floor to. 
ceiling; the last years were responsible for the two Adam mantels 
in the same room, and the two slow-combustion grates of burnished 
steel date from not long ago. Efficiency counts before pedantry in 
this house. Each panel of the wainscotting above the dado has its 
picture, a few of the Cavalier period—Kneller and Lely—the greater. 
number of the schools of Reynolds, Gainsborough, Raeburn, and 

Hoppner—artificial, perhaps, yet full of charm. The library is older, 

of late Stuart days, panelled with richly figured oak (which has 

known neither varnish nor polish, other than friction with wax) 
where the wall-flanks are not occupied by bookcases (insertions of 
later date), almost from floor to ceiling, and without doors, as book- 


cases in the country should be. The books belong, as a rule, to the 
8 


G 


i @ 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 9 





Smooth Lawns, Gracious Gardens, and Stately Trees. 


days when a volume worth keeping was thought worthy of a good 
binding of tooled leather. The dining-room—it is called the eating 
parlour in the old inventories—knows something of Wren, and still 
more of Chippendale. A house of quiet taste, built for yeomen, 
and full of that character which change of ownership or the acquire- 
ment of great wealth soon dissipates. It is a house to be kind to, 
in the lady’s own words. Whether everyone would like it I cannot 
say, but, to quote again, it is not the house which likes everyone. 
In this sense, it has a living entity—perhaps a soul. The old crafts- 
men believed that the gods were everywhere; true craftsmanship, 
in this regard, is properly Pagan, deifying the thing produced with 
cunning of eye and hand, for its own sake. With the whir of 
machinery, the bustle of modern commercial life, these old gods 
depart. It is not in crowded cities that real artisanship can live. 
Only village life, with its true fellowship of craftsmen based on 
personal knowledge and esteem, when things were wrought for the 
sheer pleasure of artistic creation, could have produced the fine wood- 
work of the fifteenth century, which survives to-day only in tiny 
churches scattered up and down the country, in East Anglia—once | 
rich on the gains of the textile trades with the Low Countries— 


10 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


in Somerset, Wiltshire, Devon, or 
the bordering counties of Wales. 
* * * 

In the same way as to evolve 
furniture of simple proportion and 
line, without aid from the carver, 
the lacquer-worker or the cutter 
of marquetry, is the supreme test 
of the craftsman or designer, so to 
make the most of a modest house is 
the measure of the capabilities of 
the decorator. With mansions or 
palaces the very intricacy and 
grandiose character of the schemes 
adopted often cover a multitude 
of errors of taste, of line, of 

“ Deifying the Thing Produced with Colour harmony or of proportion. 
Cunning of Eye and Hand.” Perhaps that is why so many 
modern houses are so unsuccessful, 

so arid, comfortless, and devoid of interest. They ape the palace or 
the mansion in miniature. A bad choice and arrangement of furniture 
or absence of harmony in colour schemes may be responsible for a 
good deal, but many of the modern houses—I speak not of the work 
of the jerry builder, but of the younger school of architects working 
without stint of money, in reason—defy the best efforts of the 
decorator. ‘Thescheme of decoration is either too involved or on too 
settled a plan. The house that has happened, as it were, is so often 
superior incharm and interest to the one which has been deliberately 
designed, that something must be said in favour of this “‘ happening.” 
That is where the collector of furniture is advantaged; he does not 
often buy the thing he wants; more often, he wants the thing he 
buys. A subtle difference, perhaps, but all-important in its result. 
We know what modern furniture is like, as a rule; we anticipate each 
piece before we see it, thanks to the execrable taste for ‘‘ matching,” 
and the cult, among manufacturers, for the “suite.” Yet in the 





THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 11 


house furnished haphazard, with the antique or even the second- 
hand (there is a distinction here), we have the charm of the 
unexpected everywhere, and that is the principal factor in a 
successful furnishing scheme. 

Modern ideas of comfort, and, what is more important still, of 
sanitation and cleanliness, with accompanying conveniences of 
lighting and warming, have rendered a somewhat drastic re-modelling 
of old houses highly necessary. The work involved can, and should, 
be done with a reverent regard for the old fabric. Unfortunately, 
the necessary knowledge and appreciation is, too often, lacking. 
Houses built in the characteristically English half-timber style, a 
framework of oak filled with brick or plaster and roofed with red 
sand-faced tiles, present many difficulties in the way of masking 
plumbing pipes, hot-water barrel or electrical casings. The average 
plumber or heating engineer appears to think that service pipes of 
lead or iron are things of beauty, to be fully displayed, and he is only 
restrained by forcible means. If old floors cannot be disturbed— 
and in the case of old oak boards this is often impossible—the best way 
is to form separate cavity partitions inside the existing walls, with 
pipes and casings behind, provision being made for the necessary 
access traps to joints or junction boxes. 

I have shown on page 12 a very successful modern house de- 
signed in this half-timber style. 
Examples as good as this are 
rare, and costly to build. The 
gardens and general lay-out 
(houses of this kind demand at 
least an acre of land, and well- 
grown timber on the site is a 
necessity) are matters of time 
and expense. Yet many old 





cottages or farmhouses, dating 
from the seventeenth century, 
which are adaptable to modern needs, are available if only one 1s 
prepared to look for them, and not to trust too much to the house 


A House which has “ Happened.” 


ie THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


agent. Inaccessibility, in these days of the motor-car, no longer exists 
(if one must get away from the house), water can be obtained from a 





“far 4 


A Modern Rendering of the Half-Timber Style of the Seventeenth Century. 


well and lifted to a roof-tank by a small motor-pump, the same power 
being used to drive a generator and charge a small lighting plant of 
from 16 to 50 2-volt cells according to needs. In timber houses, 
any of the lead-covered twin-wiring systems can be installed without 
pulling the house about too much, the visible wiring being quite 
inconspicuous, especially if it be painted in with the woodwork or 
walls. 

Half-timber houses owe a great deal of their charm to the decora- 
tive effect of the exterior more than to the rooms inside. ‘They are 
characteristically English, and properly set among well-grown timber 
give an attraction to the landscape which is possible with no other 
style of architecture. This relation of house to site is so often over- 
looked with new buildings, probably because time alone can harmon- 
ise the two, and the modern man is in a hurry. There is nothing 
more unmistakable, to my mind, than a house which has been owned 
and cared for, by the same family, for generations. ‘This care does not 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 13 


consist in frequent painting or renovation of the fabric, or even 
in preserving the integrity of the house. It may be added to, a wing 
here, a room there, it may even be neglected somewhat, so long as 
its personality (for want of a better term) is respected, which, after 
all, is nothing more than its proper relation to its surroundings. 
Below is shown a timber and plaster addition to a stone house which 
is quite successful, owing a good deal to appearance of variety which 
the mixture of styles gives. 

For entrance gates to houses of this kind I prefer a brick-built 
archway similar to the one shown overleaf, although this degree of 
elaboration is not necessary to obtain the desired vista effect. The gates 
—here of wood, but delicately forged iron in scroll pattern looks better 
still—are hung on heavy hinges to the brick jambs. At Hales Place, in 
the old-world Kentish town of ‘Tenterden, is a charming example of 
a Tudor brick-built archway, of which a view is given on the next page. 





Half-Timber Addition to a Stone-Built House. 


The most livable houses, as a rule, are those which were built in 
the early years of the eighteenth century, such as the one shown on 


14 THE OLDWORLD HOUSE 


# Cid! _ & Am pagers. Unfortunately, 


they are seldom of modest 
size, such as _present- 
day servant problems 
demand, and more un- 
fortunately stiles 
Victorian era of “ im- 
provement ” has rarely 
left the original work 
alone. While, in some 
cases, restoration to the 
original structure is not 
difficult, a Victorian archi- 
tect let loose on roofs, 
chimneys, doors, and 
windows, to ‘ 
them according to the 
notions of our dingily respectable grandfathers, was a very 
dreadful person indeed, and one who often left the “mark of 
the beast”? on a house very effectually. Enormous and _ useless 
kitchens, grates made to burn coal by the ton, yet to give no 
heat, massive marble chimney-pieces suggestive of the mausoleum 
rather than the house, 
utterly inadequate 





eee Cs ”? 
improve 
Gateway of Brick to a House of Stone. 


servant accommoda- 
tion (maids must have 
slept three or more in 
a room in those days; 
little wonder that the 
present female genera- 
tion abhors “‘service”’), 
insufficiency of bath- 
rooms (cleanliness was 





a dubious virtue, not = 
quite compatible with Hales Place, Tenterden: Tudor Archway of Brick. 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 1s 


strict respectability), window joinery where there was more wood 
than glass, and, in consequence, every room dark and gloomy, 





A Characteristic Early Georgian House. 


perfectly horrible doors, architraves, skirting, cornices, and ceilings, 
and, to crown all, the vilest wall-papers (a wall-paper is an abomina- 
tion in itself, as a rule) which perverted ingenuity could devise; 
these are a few of the playful attempts of the Victorian architect 
and decorator to make this mundane life worth living. He is gone, 
and, happily, his were also the days when tombstones were made 
of the largest possible size and weight—to prevent indiscriminate 
resurrection, maybe. , 
* * * * * 

Considerable license can be taken with the furnishing of half- 
timber houses; in fact, the whole range, from the Gothic up to 
Sheraton (not beyond, please, or we will tread on the heels of 
our happily-buried Victorian), is at command, and, wisely selected, 
should not look incongruous, even if assorted in the same room. 
It is obvious that with low rooms any furniture of undue height 


16 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


is out of place, unless used for room corners or fireplace recesses. ‘Thus, 
a long-case clock, even of room-height, will not appear out of place 
in a corner, but it will look incongruous anywhere else. (See below 
for an example of this.) 

It is better to keep the limitations of a low room in mind, and to 
play up to them, as it were. Furniture of not more than dado-height 
is better here, the wall surface above being broken up by pictures, 
small mirrors or hanging china plates. ‘The top of chests or tables 
can be used to stand vases or lamps upon, thereby further breaking 
up the dado-line. 

While purity of style may be a desirable thing (its total absence 
is execrable, as we know) there must be some concessions made in a 
house of the seventeenth century or earlier, so it is as well to begin 
at once. There is not sufficient variety in oak furniture of this period 
to satisfy modern requirements. To attempt a compromise (for 
example, to make an upholstered easy-chair in the same manner in 
which an Elizabethan craftsman would have done, if he had thought 
of it) is bad; it is more truthful to adopt the later styles frankly 
and strive for the harmonious variety 
which such admixture of styles 
encourages. With houses of the 
Georgian period we are under no 
such limitations, but an assortment 
of furniture of walnut, mahogany, 
satinwood, painted wood, marquetry, 
or lacquer, gives an opportunity to 
those with an eye for selection and 
arrangement which is not to be ~ 
dispensed with lightly. Get rid, in 
the first place, of the ideatotsthe 
suite’? almost entirelys@therem 


Corner Arrangement of Tall Furniture nothing more opposed to all harmon 
in a Low Room. 8 PP y 





in furnishing schemes. Even in the 
dining-room, where it may be desirable to have the chairs alike—that 
is, of a set, as distinct from a number of similar, yet not of the same, 


HOE OLD WORLD HOUSE 17 


pattern—it is not necessary (and with antique furniture it is not pos- 
sible) to have the sideboard, table, or side tables to match. They 
need not even be similar; if only of the same wood and, approximately, 
of the one period, the effect will be one of variety, and in this alone 
lies the secret of successful furnishing. Avoid monotony like the 
plague. The “suite” idea has an entire cemetery of homes to its 
credit, or discredit. You do not have your pictures to match; why 
your furniture? 





CHAP DE Reel iT 
THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 


HAVE the idea that I cannot insist too often on 
the fact that this book is written for the home-lover 
of modest means. I feel this for two reasons. In 
the first place the reader may forget it, and wonder 
at the comparative absence of the elaborate in the 
; schemes and pieces illustrated in these pages. Here 
is very little decorative woodwork or furniture suitable for the museum 
or the wealthy collector, although some of the picces illustrated have 
been selected, as it happens, from museums. Secondly, I emphasise 
this point as I find I am in danger, frequently, of forgetting it myself, 
with the result that the fine and expensive thing will creep in, ousting 
the one which is merely fine. In such matters as mouldings and in- 
terior joinery, I console myself with two reflections—namely, that 
good sections are very little more expensive to make than bad ones 
(or they should be), and that the extra outlay is initial and is soon 
forgotten, whereas we may live with bad sections and ill-designed 
joinery for the rest of our lives, regretting our original parsimony 
every day. I would like to drive one point home with a hammer; 
stock joinery is always bad in detail, so bad indeed that one almost 
suspects it to be purposed. I say nothing of the character of the 
wood, as a rule, as seasoned timber, in soft woods, is practically un- 
procurable in these days of kiln-drying. It is better to recognise 
this at the onset, and to design our joinery in such a manner that 
shrinkage will not be as serious as it otherwise might be. Thus, 
the use of wide boards, without jointing, is to be deprecated. In 


joinery intended for painting I prefer a number of strips, well glued 
18 


aon 


\: 
\: 


Le 





THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 19 


at the joints, to a wide panel. This may entail more work at the 
outset, but the extra time and labour is more than compensated for 
if it save filling, or re-jointing, after a door panel has been fixed in 
its framing and has shrunk to such a degree that one can post letters 
through the cracks. ‘There is nothing more annoyingly expensive 
(vexatious because it is money thrown away, literally) than to repair 
or restore poor joinery after it has done its worst in the way of warp- 
ing, shrinking, or cracking. 

The importance of mouldings of good sections, and especially 
of correct proportions, in any room, cannot be overestimated. 
This is the crucial beginning. It will be found, on careful examina- 
tion, that in many rooms of the eighteenth century, not in mansions, 
but in small houses, and even cottages, the charm consists in these 
details alone. Unfortunately, while it costs no more to “run” 
a good section than a bad one, there is mass-production to be con- 
sidered. Stock mouldings, such as are made by the thousands of 
feet with the one setting up of the machine, are cheaper, consider- 
ably, than short lengths made to special sections. The pity is that 
the firms who make stock mouldings choose the vilest sections, especi- 
ally for skirtings and door and window architraves, whereas others, 
copied from fine originals of the Georgian period, would cost no more. 
The offence is aggravated by the statement, frequently made, and 
presumably in good faith, that these sections are those which are 
demanded, because the average builder buys no other. ‘The obvious 
retort, that there are no others to buy, is ignored. I suppose many 
people imagine that Hobson really did choose. 

Herbert Spencer remarked, as a curious fact, in his autobiography, 
that not only do makers of articles, in common demand, choose the 
rational thing last, but they have a tendency, even when they have 
hit upon the right (and the same may be said, with even greater force, 
of the artistic) thing, to forsake it again for the wrong, on the slightest, 
or on no provocation. What we have to consider here is that makers 
of commercial joinery have not yet arrived at the stage of producing 
good sections, so we can defer the problem of keeping them on the 
right path when they reach it. 


20 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Four pages of sections are shown here, for cornices, picture rails, 
dadoes, skirtings, architraves, and one detail of a typical Georgian 
six-panelled door. In all cases where embellishments, whether of 
plaster, composition or carving, are shown, it is understood that these 
details can, in the greater number of instances, be omitted without 
marring the effect. It is wise to be very chary of over-elaborating 
a moulding, especially in a small or low room. Under-ornamentation 
is rarely a fault; the opposite extreme can be, and often is, a sin 
against taste. 

Do not make the almost general mistake of fixing a picture rail 
so as to leave a broad frieze between it and the cornice. Still more 
important, do not paint the frieze or picture moulding as a part of 
the wall; both should be a part of the cornice, in the way in which 
all the sections are shown here (see page 35). It is difficult to lay 
down any rule as to proportions, as projections often give an appear- 
ance of depth. ‘Thus a modillion cornice, such as No. 1 here, with a 
depth and projection of 7 inches, will be ample for a room 11 feet 
high. ‘The frieze should be the same depth as the cornice, and the 
picture rail about half as much. Do not make the rail skimpy; 
consider it always as the frieze of an entablature. 

The heights of dadoes are also difficult to state by rule of thumb, 
but it is better to err on the low rather than the high side. One- 
fourth of the total room-height is a good proportion, with a skirting 
one-fourth of the total height of the dado. Much depends, of course, 
upon the sections chosen, and these rules only apply to rooms in the 
Georgian styles. Do not be afraid of projections, especially in 
skirtings. As the flat of the skirting can be boxed out, in the manner 
shown on the sections here, this projection does not mean undue 
extravagance in timber. Remember, the skirting is the base of the 
room, and should look adequate to carry the wall-flanks above. A 
mean skirting is the hall-mark of a bad room, and nearly every stock 
skirting is a mean one. 

Taking the sections in the order in which they are shown here, 
Nos. I, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7 are suitable for rooms of not less than 
11 feet in height; Nos. 2 and 7 could be used in a 10-foot room. 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 


e/ 
©, 
Mane 


y) 
YIELD. 
ee ees 
FO LLOR SAS 


: ) e PaaS os a : wa . My, 
ht Ee CSING 
(DON GAGKOAG FY Tp) Ss 


; Hp H1K7 








FAUT, 4, 


SS 


= RRS SSN 


ss 
S 
i 
=) 
ag 
& 


RX SP? RSE 7 


9 
© 


OD OF OF TP OF OT OD SENT, 


ASS 


Led 
Vv 









ACN YN 


Y UDO 


Vt) 
rTOoOoOoOD ow 
0.0.0 GED 0.0'0¢ a ie a ie a a 1 HS Y; 









SSS 





SS 


TW erm “yy, 
Gh, SD, 6 Oh. y 
G 
Y 
J VALERA AA DA % 





Plaster Cornices : Wood Picture Rails. 


21 


PAP 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 






12 

Y 

U; 

bg ; 
i 
Y/) 
U; 

16 

Y 
4 


15 


Plaster Cornices : Wood Picture Rails. 


oe 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 





























nd a Georgian Door, * |) 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


24 





SSS 











es 0) 
”n Lp) 
2 8 
z 5 
N , 
a s , Z ESSN 
fal 
Ly > 
© V4, sx UV 
") 
Y i Yi = = 








ea 
32 


Surbases and Skirtings. 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS oe 


Nos. 4, 10, 11, and 13 are ideal for heights of g feet or less. The 
cornices proper should be in plaster, (firms like Messrs. Jackson of 
Rathbone Place, London, W., have good stock moulds of many of 
these shown here), the picture rails in wood. ‘The friezes are, in each 
case, the finished face of the plaster of the wall itself. The archi- 
traves shown in Nos. 17 to 22 are all suitable for rooms large or small; 
it is merely a matter of proportions. No. 19 is a good simple section 
for a cottage or small house. 

Dadoes and skirtings are self-suggestive, but using terms in their 
proper significance, the capping moulding is the surbase, the dado 
itself being the entire base of the room from capping to floor. It is 
sometimes desirable to frame out below the surbase, with the wall- 
face forming the panels, as in No. 27. In other cases the surbase 
can be made with a broad top flat to take panelling above only, as in 
Nos. 30, 31, and 35. The provision of a low chair rail at the base of 
the skirting, as in No. 39, is desirable, preventing damage to the 
skirting by the back legs of chairs being pushed violently against the 
wall. Simple skirtings of moulded boards, such as No. 32, require 
no boxing out, but all the others on this page are fixed in this pro- 
fecume manner, Hold’skirting, such as» Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27; 33, 35, 
36, and 39 are only suitable for large and lofty rooms. 

The modern four-panelled Swedish door is an abomination, and 
should not be tolerated. ‘The six-panelled, such as is illustrated here 
in No. 23, is almost as cheap to make, and is infinitely preferable in 
every way. The moulding should be a bold ovolo, worked on the 
framings, not nailed on the panels. 

Door-proportions are important—nothing looks worse than a 
narrow door. I prefer a height of 6 feet 4 inches, which is admittedly 
low, with a width of 3 feet, where possible. ‘The architraves should 
be broad, not less than one-sixth of the door-width, and should have 
a square stop the height of the flat of the skirting. It is better to 
project the hinges, for the door to clear this square stop, rather than 
to chamfer it towards the door. 

Timber-thicknesses being reckoned gross—that is, without the 
saw-cut, which takes away nearly one-eighth of an inch, a door made 


26 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


from 14-inch wood would only be 13 inches when finished. This is a 
thin door, but is ample for a small cottage or house. For a door of 
ane ee this kind, a box-lock, preferably ot 
plain brass, is better than a mortise 
lock, as the latter weakens the door 
unduly on its locking rail, and 
is not so decorative in elect: 
Never choose an ornamented brass 
inee box-lock for the door in a small 
Bagee BOO eS eae house; this is embellishment mis- 
Eighteenth Century. ve : ; 
applied. It is more important to 
have the key of good design, such as the example shown by the 
side of the lock illustrated here. With box-locks, finger plates are 
impossible things; they are doubtful embellishments on any door. 
Handles are also important. The usual cheap _brass-founder’s 
stock contains nothing but rubbish. China handles are one of 
the legacies from our grandfathers’ days, and should be avoided. 
A word may be said in favour of those of cut glass, although 
they date from the same period, as a rule, but they are costly, 
and liable to breakage. I know of no more suitable handle for 
Georgian doors than the swivelled-loop kind such as is shown here 
on this box-lock. They are simple, charming in detail, easy to 
fix without the use of worm-screws, and they are now stocked 
by the better brasswork houses. With a box-lock, the screw-plate 
of the handle must be riveted to the lock face, otherwise it cannot 
be fixed, and will pull off its square spindle. 

Hinges can be dismissed in a few words. If they have to project, 
in order that the door can clear a projecting stop to the architrave, 
choose those with ornamental terminals to the ‘‘ knuckles.” Brass 
is more decorative than iron, and the door and architrave should be 
painted first, the hinges and other furniture fixed afterwards. ‘This 
is the cleaner and neater method; that is why it is followed so seldom. 

A word or two on the subject of entrance doors to houses—or 
‘“ street ’? doors, as they are generally termed, so many of the eigh- 
teenth-century houses being built right on the road—may be given here. 





THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 27 


Georgian houses atoned for the lack of privacy in the front rooms on 
the ground-floors, as a rule, by the ornate character of their entrance 
doors. On these alone a book could be written, and illustrative 
material is available to fill three or four. ‘Two fine examples are shown 


here on this page and 
the next, and as these 
are now in the Victoria 
and Albert Museum, 
they are accessible for 
inspection and close 
study, which they will 
adequately repay. 
Fine as these doors 
are—and many ex- 
amples still remain in 
situ in London and 
old towns such as 
Hitchin, Canterbury, 
and St. Albans (to 
name three, at hazard, 
from a hundred or 
two)—they are rare 
in the generality of 
houses, and it 1s seldom 
that they can be ac- 
quired, and still more 
seldom adapted to a 
house not especially 
designed to receive 
them. They belong 
as a rule to their 
structures, and do not 
bear transplantation. 





Doorcase and Door from 18, Carey Street, London, W.C. 
(In the Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


With this incursion into the elaborate, in spite of the warning 
with which this chapter opens, I have shown here, on page 29, an 


28 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


idea which may be of some service. ‘This door was, originally, 
six-panelled, the upper four panels being glazed. The “ cross” 
of the framing (a glance at the door shown on page 23 will show 
the meaning of this term) obscured a good deal of the light, and 
the hall beyond 
was dark in con- 
sequence, sia 
obviate this defect, 
P the cross-framing 
was cut away 
(which did not 
weaken the door), 
a rebated bolection 
moulding mitred 
round the opening 
thus made, and a 
leaded glass panel 
inserted, fixed with 
flat beads on the 
hall side. An op- 
portunity was 
created for incor- 
poratins ene 
armorial  stained- 
glass panel shown 
in the illustration. 
To the purist this 
method of gaining 
additional light 
would not appeal, 
stained glass in a 
Georgian door 
being ameyam@a- 
chronism, but the result was decorative and charming, and, above 
all, effective for the purpose of lighting the staircase hall. 











Doorcase and Door from Abingdon House, Wright's Lane, 
Kensington. (In the Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 29 


Staircases are frequently a serious problem. In designing a house 
one has the choice of two alternatives: to make the staircase a means 
of access to the upper floors only, and to give it no other importance— 
to conceal it, in fact; or to make it a prominent feature, giving it 
the space which its dignity demands. ‘The first was the usual method 


in sixteenth-century houses, 
especially of the Great Hall 
type, where one or two and 
often more flights of stairs 
were provided, but of an in- 
conspicuous type, sometimes 
deliberately concealed behind 
doors. With the Great Hall, 
of full roof-height, bisecting 
the house, two or more stair- 
ways were necessary. It was 
with the Stuart houses, and 


with the decline of the Great. 


Hall in favour of the Long 
iFailery, that the staircase 
attained its full dignity of 
broad hand-rail, massive newel 
—often surmounted with 
carved heraldic figures of lions 
or griffins—and pierced panel 
or turned baluster. ‘Towards 
the end of the seventeenth 
century, staircases became 
lighter in construction with- 
out losing much of their 
earlier dignity, and it is these 
Water seventeenth and early 
eighteenth- century balusters 





Door with Centre “ Cross”? Cut away, and 
Leaded Glass Panel inserted in Bolection 
Moulding. 


which are ideal as models, graceful in form, fine in detail, and not 


too expensive to reproduce. 


ItP isi lof tthe phighestamim portance, 


30 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 
however, that space should not be begrudged. Thus, on this page is 


a staircase admirable in detail and charming in arrangement of long 
gallery and cross bridge, yet marred by being in a hall too narrow for 
it. On the next page is another example, not nearly as good in detail, 
but great dignity of effect is obtained by the broad panelled hall, 
through the columned opening in which the staircase is seen in proper 
perspective. Even in the small house this method is to be recom- 
mended. It is better to lose a so-styled drawing-room to gaina good 
staircase or lounge hall (as the latter can make an ideal sitting-room, 
especially in the summer) rather than to have the staircase rising 
abruptly from a narrow passage on which the entrance door of the 
house opens immediately. There is nothing which stamps many of 
the smaller Victorian houses as utterly bad so much as these narrow 
staircase halls or passages leading upwards, steeply, to the floors 
above, and by a dingy flight, dark and hidden behind a spandrel 


door, to unspeakable basement kitchen or “servants’ quarters.” 


Oak Staircase with Deal Dado Panelling. The Sweeps of the Hand-Rail are Admirabie. 





The growth of a class which has learned to detest the name of 
“service,” and to prefer stuffy factories, even in slums, dates from 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 31 


this Victorian period 
of innumerable stairs 
and dark basements. 
The grate with its 
mantel is animportant 
adjunct to the small 
room, and the more 
simple the type the 
better. as a ‘rule. 
Where a mantel shelf 
is not required, as in 
a hall, nothing looks 
better than a simple 
bolection moulding, 
framed round marble 
slips, such as is shown 
below. 





Panelled 
Arrangement where Possible. 
Daniel Smith, Oakley and Garrard.) 


tA RY 





if 
lee 


Hall open to Staircase Hall beyond. An Ideal 
(By Courtesy of Messrs. 


Such a moulding should be of marble, but a good 


substitute can be obtained with either wood or Keene’s cement, 





Bolection Moulding of Keene's 
Cement, Marbled. Base Blocks 
of Tinos, Surround to Stove 
Sienna Marble. An Ideal 
Mantel Treatment for a Hall. 


painted and grained. ‘To the purist an 
imitation of marble is an offence, I 
know, but he is not an economical 
person, as a rule, and I am giving hints 
to the one whose purse is not long. The 
mantel shown here begins with two base 
blocks of dark green Tinos marble. 
Perhaps marble is an extravagance, but 
it is desirable to avoid the injury which 
would result if the ends of the fender 
were pushed against plaster by careless 
maids eelhe mouldingsiteeleasecast in 
Keene’s cement, marbled to correspond 
with the base blocks. The interior— 
that is, the surround to the anthracite 
stove—is of Sienna marble, as it has to 
withstand great heat in the winter. 


32 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Anthracite stoves are very efficient for a hall of any size, especially 
when the staircase is in the hall itself, as in this case, but in sitting- 
rooms they are not to be 
recommended. They 
also demand attention 
and cleanliness which 
they do not always 
recelve. 

It may be a) mates 
of personal predilec- 
tion, but I am very 
attached to these simple 
marble bolection sur- 
rounds, especially for 
rooms Of M1 wicetaron 
more, in height. They 
are applicable, of course, 
only to early Georgian 
or late Orange schemes. 
The absence of a mantel 
shelf is a positive advan- 
tage if if -preventea 
choice assortment of 
photograph frames and 
similar knick - knacks 
being displayed. The 
space above can be filled 
with a good oil painting, portrait or landscape, or it can be reserved 
for an ornate frame, such as the one shown here, which would look 
over-elaborate if hung elsewhere. This is your focus-point, and here 
you can letyourselivoo.: 

The modern slow-combustion grate is really a triumph of manu- 
facture, efficient, economical, and decorative. It is also exceedingly 
cheap. I have illustrated one here, on the next page, of Elsley’s make, 
with a simple mantel. ‘The grate surrounds are of Sienna marble. 





Frame Carved in Lime-Tree (the work of Grinling 
Gibbons), Victoria and Albert Museum. 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 33 
A pretty effect is obtained by inlaying five blue-and-white Chinese 


plates, of miniature size, in the frieze, fixing them with gold-size 
and plaster. A good 
mantelpiece should 
always be simple; 
elaboration is undesir- 
able, even though this 
is the focus-point of 
the room. ‘The shelf 
should not havea large 
projection; if a broad 
shelf be desired, then 
the entire mantel 
should be boxed out 
from the wall face. 
Nine designs of 
mantels are illustrated 


Here,ealesimple, with ~~ ON ee ee 

the exception. possibl Simple Chimney-Piece of Painted Deal. Frieze Inlaid with 
P se P z Ys Blue-and-W hite Chinese Plates. Broad Sienna Marble 

of No. 8, which is from Dee estat Chaie: 


an Adam original. I[ 

have shown no such thing as an overmantel, as, to me, this article 
hardly exists outside of a Victorian lodging-house of the lower grade. 
All the models shown here are intended for painting, and the enrich- 
ments can be of carton-pierre—or can be omitted altogether in the 
greater number of instances. Do not insist on a shelf of too great 
an overhang. In the small illustration on page 35 the shelf. grows, 





naturally, from its tablet. 

So far we have only considered the Georgian house. With the 
seventeenth-century type, or earlier, the best form is the stone lining, 
or mantlet, either finished against the plaster, as on page 36, or with 
an oak surround varying from the simple moulding or shelf up to the 
lordly panelled room, such as the two elaborate examples shown here, 
pages 37 and 39. ‘The dining-room mantel at Hemsted is, perhaps, 
the decorative limit in carved oak, with lining of sculptured stone and 

I 3 


34 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 





































AG DAAVASVAUAURAIR AW) AUPVAWIVATEVALL LA @7AGR ACP ZANS Al 












i 
Hil} 





d | i 

HK H 

ers PIAS TEAS I. SSI TS VA 
ee eee 








sill LN 











































































Ai 


COON COU LOM Cn ee 



























ES SSS 
SSSS 






































































TCU PMTONMIMIOMII OM 











ZT Va Va Wa ak 
= 


aN 

Von 

0 eff KN fp ET z 
AY 























=a 
I} y =A 
il 4 


K 





i 
ly 

Syl) 
ial 


Me 









Nine Simple Designs for Chimney-Pieces. 


PHERDECORALION OF ROOMS 


35 


opening decorated with two-inch bricks and roofing tiles on edge, 


arranged in herring-bone fashion. 


This is a good method of using 


up broken sand-faced tiles, which, otherwise, are nearly always dis- 


carded as useless. 


With an old house, especially of seventeenth-century date, the 
trouble frequently is that there are too many rooms, generally on the 
upper floors. Their presence is a responsibility to a careful housewife, 


who declines to lock a door and to 
consider the room behind as non- 
existent. In early Stuart houses, 
whether of brick, stone or timber, 
of the low rambling kind, this 
problem frequently presents it- 
self. The ground-floor rooms are 
low, but all the more desirable on 
that account. Thus, on page 39, 
is a charming morning-room or 
semi-library less than nine feet in 
height, yet the low pitch of the 
ceiling has been taken full advan- 
tage of in the arrangement of the 
room, in a manner which, while 
quite successful here, would have 
been an utter failure had the 
height been increased by another 
two feet or so. When we have, 
however, upper rooms of little 
more than six feet, one feels that 
the ceiling is being carried on the 
head of the occupant, and the 
effect becomes disagreeable. Such 
a problem actually existed in the 
same house from which this morn- 
ing-room has been taken. You 


unreasonable expense, and the room is not worth it. 





Well-Designed Mantel of Painted Deal. 
Black Grate, Inner Surrounds of Tinos 
Marble, Outer of Sicilian. Pierced 
Brass Fender. 


cannot raise the roof without 
To lower the 


36 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


floor is to rob the apartment below, which, being already low, 
cannot afford it. 

I have already insisted, in the previous chapter, on two things 
in the arrangement of rooms in the house—namely, to aim at variety 
wherever possible, such as the breaking up of square rooms to an 
irregular shape, and in making no compromise on the subject of room- 
height. If you want comfort, and have to consider expense, let your 
ceilings be low. Every foot you add means another couple of stairs 
to mount and to keep clean, more stair-carpet, extra rods, greater 
height to the house, which means more expense in the building, and 
other things in the way of domestic worries which the careful house- 
wife will appreciate. But if you desire a high room, as a welcome 
change from the low ceilings elsewhere, let it be high, not a matter of 
a niggardly foot or two, but plunge straightway, for seventeen or 
eighteen feet. Here is your chance to get rid of that upper useless 





Stone Mantel and Shelf, Flush with the Plaster of the Wall and with no 
Oak Surround or Capping. 


room; take up the floor, rip out the joists and throw it into the room 
below. Look at the room on page 40, which is in the same house 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 27, 





Carved Oak Mantel with Stone Surround to Opening. Plain Panelling of Full Room-Height. 





Carved Oak Mantel with Stone Surround to Opening. Inner Frame Panelling with 
Carved Frieze and Pilasters. 


Oak Rooms of the Late Seventeenth Century. 


38 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


as the one we have just noticed; this was formerly two, one above 
the other, the gallery beyond the small mullioned window, shown high 
up at the end, marking the original floor-line. The plaster ceiling, in 
gabled form, has been contrived to bring down the height, which would, 
otherwise, have been excessive. For this purpose a barrel ceiling is even 
better, but is much more expensive. The hood above the mantel will 
show how necessary it was to bring down the ceiling to meet it in this 
way. Carried up to the ceiling-flat, it would have been enormous. 
To many collectors, the principal charm of Stuart panelling and 
woodwork is its intimate character, which can be appreciated, but 
is dificult to define. We feel that this work is the personal expression, 
not only of the craftsmen who produced it, but also of the people 
for whose houses it was made. This quality is hardly ever present 





Mantel of Carved Oak with Stone Lining and Raisea Stone Hearth. Wrought-Iron 
Basket Grate and Irons, adaptable either for Coal or Log Burning. 


in the deal panellings of Georgian times. The latter are fully as 
decorative—in fact, as effective backgrounds for furniture or pictures 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 39 
(which should be the proper function of wall panellings), they are 


even more successful. But we must bear in mind that in the seven- 
teenth century, especially during its first half, pictures were rarities, 
and furniture was exceedingly scanty in any houses of lesser note than 
those of the noble or very wealthy. ‘True, in the rich East Anglian 
counties, the merchants who traded with the Netherlands often lived 
on a more sumptuous scale even than the nobility, in the sense that 
their houses, although much smaller, were infinitely more complete 
and finished, but they were the exception. Take the panelled room 
from Barnstaple, formerly in the house of a rich merchant in Crock 
Street in the days when Barnstaple was a seaport and traded extensively 
with the Americas, but now removed to a house outside the town, and 
fitted with modern doors, chimney opening, and fireplace furniture. 
Two views are shown on pages 41 and 42. Pentecost Doddridge 





Oak-Panelled Room with Carved Mantel, Stone Surround and Raised Hearth. Weall-Flanks 
on Either Side of Fireplace fitted with Bookshelves. A Good Treatment for Low 
Rooms. 


had this fine wainscotting, of richly figured oak, made for his house 
in 1617, and carved this date in the centre of his mantel with his 


40 THEPOLDY ORM aiH10 Use 
initials and those of his wife Elizabeth, P.D. and E.D., to flank it 


on either side. Here is rich woodwork made for a room which 
can have boasted little, if anything, in the way of pictures, and the 
furniture of which must have been scanty; a table, a few chairs, perhaps 
a buffet or wall cupboard or two, and that was all. Furniture then 
was made for use, first and foremost. ‘There were no such trifles as 
** occasional’ tables, made not for occasional use, but never to be used 
at all; merely to occupy floor space and to look pretty. Carpets, we 
know, were rare, in fact almost unknown. Good oak boards, wide and 
well figured, secured to the joists below with honest nails driven 
through and punched 
home, these were good 
enough for the feet of 
the merchant princes of 
that date, | andi) them 
womenkind. Here was 
every opportunity for 
personal expression in 
the . furnishing Seance 
especially the wainscot- 
ting of rooms; there was 
no gewgaw or knick- 
knack to divert; no 
en 27 artificial dressing up. 
Meum =line craftsmanship was 

si fostered, perhaps not by 
adequate reward, but it 
is something to the good 
when the desire can exist 
to possess a room as rich 


eae arma rac peer oer ore het and as personal as this. 
Oak Panelling fitted to a High Room, Hooded Mantel of Th Ace . 
Stone. Gabled Ceiling of Modelled Plaster. ce 
sounded here and there 

throughout the seventeenth century; it is rarely heard afterwards. 


Pentecost Doddridge has his room in 1617, from the windows of 






‘al 





THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 41 


which he can look out on the shipping in the Taw, the argosies 
bringing wealth from distant lands for the enriching of Barnstaple 
and its merchants. In years to come, let us hope not in his lifetime, 
the rivalry between Barnstaple and Bideford is settled, finally, by the 
shallowing of the river, until vessels of size can no longer reach his 
town, and its harbour falls into decay. Bideford has triumphed. 

At the other end of the century we find another personal expres- 
sion, when John Penhalow takes a double set of chambers in Clifford’s 
Inn, “‘ for the space of three lives,” and puts in the wonderful wood- 
work which is now one of the finest possessions of the Victoria and 
Albert Museum. Penhalow looks from 47s windows on the quiet 
Srassed court of the Inn. He is not so far from’ the Thames (in fact, 
Clifford’s Inn was nearer to it in the late seventeenth century than it 
is at the present day), and he can gaze upon merchant shipping if he 
is so inclined, but he is a student, not a trader, yet like to Pentecost 
of Barnstaple in this, that both left their personality stamped in every 











Oak Room from a House in Crock Street, Barnstaple. Made for Pentecost and Elizabeth 
Doddridge in 1617. 


line and detail of the rooms which they enriched for their own delecta- 
tion, and in which each lived his span of life in quiet enjoyment and 
content, let us hope. 


42 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


For a simple scheme, in a long but low room, the large-panelled 
wainscotting of Georgian time is, perhaps, the most successful. It is 
considerably cheaper than oak panelling of any quality, other than that 





The Chimney-Ptece of the Room Illustrated on the Previous Page. 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 43 


of the tongue-and-groove kind which, some years ago, was made and 
fixed at a price of about eighteenpence per square foot. Construc- 
tionally, however, this was not panelling at all, being put together 
on the job and nailed to the walls in tiers, much in the same manner 
as common matchboarding. Made, as it was, from raw American 
oak, it was, at the best, a poor imitation, and its life but a few years. 
In this respect it was, perhaps, the most expensive panelling of all, 
in the long run. 

The old Georgian panelling was made, as an almost general rule, 
of red deal, and very decorative this wood is if the paint be stripped 
off and the bare surface polished with wax and friction. It is easy 
for a good decorator to grain over any disfiguring knots or other 
blemishes. The tone to aim at is that of old pencil cedar or pear-tree, 
something like a cinnamon shade. This can be achieved by using a 
coloured wax dissolved to a paste in turpentine, without heat. 





Room Panelled with Red Deal left in Natural Wood with a Waxed Finish. The Niched 


Cupboard in the Corner is an Interesting and Inexpensive Feature. 


The room shown above is panelled in this way, with a modil- 
lion cornice of plaster painted and grained to resemble the wood 


Zep THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 








Oak China Cupboard with Drawers below. 
Suitable for Placing against a Wall in the 
Centre of a Wall-Flank. 





below. ‘These old panellings 
are still to be met with, and 
are not unreasonably expen- 
sive to buy, although the 
fitting to another room is 
sometimes a costly matter. 
Original cornices of wood, 
with carved modillions (they 
were made) are exceedingly 
rare, however, and their pres- 
ence more than doubles the 
value of a room. In “the 
example shown here the doors 
are modern, of English oak, 
with “ fielded ”’ or chamfered 
panels. The apsidal corner 
niche, open, and with shaped 
shelves for the display of china, 
is a pretty and inexpensive 
feature. On some of the china 
niches, however, a consider- 
able amount of fine workman- 
ship in the way of carving was 
frequently lavished. ‘There is 
a fine example in the Victoria 
and Albert Museum, which I 
have illustrated in) Earle 
English Furniture and Wood- 
work,” vol.i., Fig.285. Among 
the many fine specimens of 
eighteenth - century . English 


woodwork which the Museum 


possesses, this alcove is to me, perhaps, the most satisfying of all. 
Above is shown a more simple example of these china cup- 
boards, of oak, and with a glazed latticed door, each shelf with a 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 45 


pierced and carved bracket at each end. Placed against a wall, in 
the centre of a flank, these cupboards are exceedingly decorative, 
especially if they are reserved for the display of really fine English 
china, Swansea, Devenport, Chelsea, Rockingham, and the like. 

The treatment of walls, if panelling be too expensive, is of the 
highest importance. If it be intended to hang pictures, especially 
in any number, any pattern on the wall is best avoided. With the 
pattern goes the necessity of using wall-papers, which are doubtful 
blessings in many rooms, although possessing decided advantages 
in large halls or on staircases. I prefer a flat paint, such as Parsons’ 
‘““ Unicote,” with a velvet finish, obtained by the use of the stippler, 
as being more decorative, and infinitely more lasting than any paper. 
But the decorator who insists on first hanging the walls with a lining 
paper should be summarily ejected, as on the sticking of his paste 
(always a dubious proposition) depends the existence of your paint 
for which you are paying. 

If the wall be defective, cut out the bad patches and re-float with 
Keene’s, taking care to apply a thin priming coat just before the 
plastering sets. ‘“‘ Unicote,”’ being largely prepared with powdered 
oyster-shells (at least, so I am told), dries without gloss, and with a 
steel-hard surface which permits of washing and of a certain amount 
of rough usage. I do not recommend its use on woodwork. For this 
there is nothing equal to a good lead paint, if properly prepared. 

On the subject of the bathroom alone a large book could be 
written. A progressive range could be illustrated from the Housing 
Scheme bath, fixed in the scullery, with a portable copper as its next- 
door neighbour, to the lordly sunk Roman bath, of mosaic or marble. 
The bathroom is a late arrival in the history of the English house, 
dating, as a general thing, from the last decade or two of the nine- 
teenth century. True, as early as the “sixties” there were cranks 
who really believed that washing the body was certainly sanitary, 
possibly healthy, but the fact that they were regarded as cranks 
shows that the custom was by no means a general one. 

In our Old-World House, therefore, the bathroom is either a | 
modern innovation or has to be constructed where nothing of the kind 


46 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


existed before. I have known houses in which the uttermost conces- 
sion in this direction was a room where a portable bath was placed on 
the floor, and water carried up in cans for those queer, hardly respect- 
able, people who insisted on washing. No one who has studied the 
subject of English furniture can have failed to notice the fact that, 
even at the close of the eighteenth century the washstand or washing 
table was a non-existent article. Fashion, working in another cycle, 
and a more hygienic one, has ousted the washstand from many of the 
modern bedrooms, and rightly too, as the bedroom is not the place 
to wash in. We know that the bath was unheard of until almost a 
century later. Can it be that our Georgian ancestors never washed ¢ 
I am afraid it is too true. ‘They powdered, and the gentler, but by 
no means cleaner, sex rouged, and that sufficed, it seems. 

The bath is a problem in the average middle-class house. Mis- 
takes are made, all too frequently, which are not discovered until 
later on. ‘The bath is selected in a showroom, and fixed and plumbed 
anyhow, and in any sort of place. Now, in the matter of an efficient 
bath there is always the tendency to overdo the thing, trusting to 
eye rather than to experience, finding out, when it is too late, that 
a similar mistake has been made to that of the boy who helped him- 
self to the salmon; he took what he wanted, and then found out that 
he did not want all that he took. ‘The average bath is too big, too 
wide, and too high. It strains the modest resources of the average 
boiler to fill it sufficiently, and the expanse of radiating surface cools 
the water too rapidly, with the result that you scald when you enter 
the water, and you shiver before you leave it. The ideal bath is of 
copper, either with or without enamelling, but this is expensive. 
The cast-iron, vitreous-enamelled type is cheap and efficient, pro- 
viding that it be not too huge. The ideal size is, about 5 feet 6 inches 
in length, 27 inches in width over the roll, and 15 inches inside 
depth. The roll of the bath can be quite small and flat. Such a 
bath should be enamelled outside as well as in, and should stand on a 
base or plinth, not on feet. In this base can be concealed the fall to 
the waste end. ‘The taps should be fixed to the wall, in the form 
of two valves, with a mixing chamber low down in the bath itself. 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 47 


This obviates the careless practice of running boiling hot water into 
the bath, and from the height of the tap, with the grave risk of 
cracking the enamel. A simple rod-waste, with a perforated overflow 
above, is better than the usual heavy tubular-waste with overflow 
combined, and the chain-waste is a nuisance. I prefer a bath without 
any slope of the sides or ends, a plain, vertical-sided tub. 

The position of the bath is important. Where possible it should 
be fixed with its tap and waste end to an outside wall, for convenience 
of plumbing to taps, waste, and overflow, but otherwise in the centre 
of the room. The usual custom of fixing it in a corner (unless the 
bath is to be cased) is insanitary. [he space between the side and 
the wall is a dirt trap, and where you have hot-water pipes you will 
get dirt, in any household, no matter how clean. 

The tiled-in bath is an American notion, developed from the ugly 
wood-cased baths of the later Victorian days, but without the dis- 





Glass Legs. Tiled Dado to Room and Vitreous Tiles on Floor 


advantages of the latter. The tiling is fixed wader the roll, as can 
be seen in the illustration above, instead of the framed wooden 


48 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


top fixed on the bath, with its necessary dirty joint where wood and 
metal meet. The only criticism I have to offer on these American 
baths is that too much reliance is placed on efficient plumbing. It 
is better and it is not difficult to contrive a loose trap at the waste 
end for access to the pipes. Otherwise they are neat and clean, and, 
with their casing, retain the heat better than our English open baths. 

The semi-sunk bath, with base or step of marble, is convenient 
but expensive. In the one shown here the taps are of the pillar 
valve kind, easy of access 
to repair or clean. The 
surrounding towel rail is 
heated from the domestic 
supply,.as  thesempraue 
always should be, as heat 
is required in the bath- 
room at  alljeetimes 
whereas radiators are 
discontinued in the 
summer months. 

Where it is not con- 
venient to fix the bath 
with its end to a wall, 
certain models can be 
obtained which are con- 
structed to be plumbed 
from the side. One is 
shown here. The walls 


and the door are sheathed 


Semi-Sunk Bath in Platform of White Pentelikon with marble, giving 4 
Marble. Valves and Waste on Separate Standards 1 ; 
away from Bath. Hot Towel Railing round End, ©*©aN. and sanitary ap- 
Walls White and Blue Opalite Tiling. Ceiling pearance to ‘the room. 
Sheets of Opalite Framed in Aluminium Beads. 
Green ‘fointless Flooring, “* Durato”’? Make. 


q 
ie 





Tiles are an efficient sub- 
stitute, and sits aenor 
necessary to take them any higher than § feet from the floor. If this 
method be too expensive (although one should bear in mind that a 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 49 


good bathroom is a first charge only, and should not occasion any 
expense afterwards) a good plastered wall, rendered in Keene’s cement 





Double-Ended Bath with Taps and Waste in Centre of Side and Mixing-Chamber in Bath. 
Door and Walls Sheathed with Skyros and Tinos Marbles. Glass over Lavatory 
Basin Recessed in Wall, with Light over. ‘fointless Composition Floor. 


and painted with a wall-flat (1 recommend “ Unicote,” manufactured 
by Parsons of Oxford Street) according to the directions stated, will 
give a good and permanent result. If lime putty be used (and it is 
difficult to prevent this, apparently, as the average plasterer prefers 
it, for ease in trowelling, to Keene’s or Parian, and will use it even 
if he has to buy it himself) no paint will be possible until after two 
or three years, as the action of the lime will burn it off almost as soon 
as it is applied. Lime, therefore, should be rigidly forbidden, and 
care should be taken to see that none is even brought into the house, 
on any pretext, while work is in operation. 

A very effective tiling, known as Rust’s vitreous, made, as far as 

I 4 


50 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


I can remember, by Chance Bros. of St. Helens, could be procured 
some years ago, but, since the war, I have not seen it, so presume it 
is no longer made. It was supplied in roughly-cut pieces of about 
3 inches by 1 inch, in various shades of green. Each tile had the appear- 
ance of coarse semi-transparent green glass, of about 4 inch in 
thickness. For houses of the oak period I know of nothing better. 
Below is shown a bathroom with walls panelled up to 7 feet in 
height with this vitreous tiling, effective use being made of the various 
shades in which it was supplied. 

Lavatory basins are largely matters for individual choice, and the 





Bath with Glass Screen and Double Shower. Glass above Lavatory Inset in Wall. Good 
Type of Basin with Broad Top. Walls with Rust’s Vitreous Tiling in Bordered Patterns. 
Green ‘Fointless Composition Flooring. 


available patterns are legion. ‘The top, whether of marble or cast 
in the one piece with the basin, should be considerably larger than 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS on 


the basin-opening, and should be dished so that it can be flooded 
with water without splashing the floor (see page 5°). 

Floors are important, especially as there are many “ notions ” on 
the market which are far from satisfactory. If the flooring be of 
boards, and not new, a thick, plain cork-carpet is as good a covering 
a3 any, providing it be well laid, closely fitted, and pasted down. 
Rubber, or virgin cork, is not advisable. "The former has a tendency 
to swell and buckle, and the vulcanising sulphur works out in a dis- 
figuring powder. Natural cork is comfortable to the bare feet, but 
being highly porous cannot be kept thoroughly clean. It is also 
expensive. A newly constructed bathroom should have neither 
cornice nor skirting, and the floor should be formed in slightly rein- 
forced concrete, with a jointless composition floor of ‘* Doloment,”’ 
“Durato,” or Bell’s Asbestos laid on top. If the room-expanse be 
not too great (and a bathroom should be small, to avoid the draughts 
of large spaces) these floors are quite satisfactory, especially if kept 
oiled, occasionally, with linseed oil. ‘The makers claim that they are 
warm to the feet, as the chief constituent is sawdust, but this is not 
strictly true. They are not as cold as marble, mosaic, tiles, or cement, 
but they are not as warm to the feet as cork-carpet. As a compensa- 
tion, they are more easily kept clean, as, even with the most accurate 
cutting, there 1s always a dirt crevice between cork-carpet and the 
wall or skirting. ‘The coldness of these composition floors is not a 
serious drawback, however, as the bathroom should be provided with 
a large mat or sheet for the floor. 

A word as to mirrors in the bathroom. I prefer these unframed, 
a plate of silvered glass, with a thin sheet of lead as a backing, slightly 
let into the wall, so that steam cannot attack the silvering from behind. 
This precaution will prevent the silvering becoming pitted after a 
yearortwo. ‘Arctic’ or rolled glass is best for the windows, and cur- 
tains or blinds should be rigidly excluded. If the door can be flush- 
panelled, so much the better. In the desire for cleanliness of appear- 
ance, do not be beguiled by vitreous-enamelled taps or other enamelled 
furniture. They look very well, when new, in the showroom, but they 
are likely to chip or perish, especially in a heated steam atmosphere. 


52 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Brass or gun-metal, which can be kept polished, is preferable to this 
enamel, and also to nickel-plating, which soon wears off and shows 
the underlying brass in patches. 

A word or two more before leaving the subject of bathrooms. 
Why is the bath I have described not illustrated here? Because it 
does not exist. Makers aver that the public does not desire such a 
pattern, the proof being that as they have never made a bath of this 
kind, no one has ever bought one, therefore it cannot be in demand. 
The public must be well looked after; it must have just what it wants, 
of course, this being just what the manufacturer chooses to give it, 
equally of course. It’s all so simple, and so progressive. Yet—and 
this is the crucial truth—the manufacturer is right, in his way. When 
the public gets exactly what it requires, it makes a point of never 
asking for it, so the ideal thing does not sell, as a rule. 

While on the subject of problems, there is the lighting of low rooms 
to be considered, always a matter of some difficulty. Plain brass 
candelabra from a central point in the ceiling (one can be seen in the 
room illustrated on page 41) are successful, and when these were 
imported from Holland, from makers such as Stokvis of Arnheim, in the 
years before the war, were well finished and quite inexpensive. Since 
then English manufacturers have reproduced a good many patterns 
quite successfully, but at an enhanced price. They are still, however, 
the cheapest and most satisfactory ceiling fittings, in my opinion. 
Pendants of any kind, however, ina very low room, are not satisfactory, 
unless a large table be placed underneath, permanently, as there is 
the danger of striking them with the head, in passing, with risk to the 
person, and the certainty of putting a lamp or two out of action if 
the fittings are wired for electric light. 

In these days of cheap power plants one naturally assumes that 
the house is fitted with electric light. It is not only cheap and clean, 
butits convenience isso great. Iamalso glad to record my testimony 
of the super-efficiency of Pritchett and Gold’s batteries, and especially 
of their business methods, which are beyond praise. 

Failing electric current, however, I should recommend oil lamps 
(in spite of many drawbacks and the trouble which they entail) or 


THE DECORATION OF ROOMS 53 


candles (which I know are expensive) to gas. To me, gas brackets 
or pendants are anathema, and in low rooms they blacken and defile 
everything. Cook with gas, use it to drive an engine, do anything 
with it you like, but for lighting of rooms leave it severely alone. 

Pendants being often impossible, and wall brackets possessing 
the merit only of lighting the patch of wall immediately behind them, 
the standard or table lamp only remains, but here is scope for great 
ingenuity and resource. China vases can be fitted as lamps, and wood 
standards, covered with damask, velvet or, most effective of all, tooled 
leather, can be made quite cheaply. On page 16 is shown one of these 
wooden standards covered with velvet, and rimmed, at top and base, 
with hammered iron, in a room just under g feet in height, and 
very well it looks, in my judgment. The bulb is fitted to a stout 
candle (or imitation of one) of painted wood. I prefer electric 
candles made in this way, of wooden tubes, wired up to the bayonet 
holder at the top. They are cheap, effective (much more so than the 
stock type of opal glass), do not rattle, and when a lamp breaks, it zs 
a lamp only, and not acomplete candle fitting. In addition, if these 
wooden ‘‘ candles” are properly socketed at the bottom, they sit 
upright in the sconces, instead of leaning at all angles, as is so fre- 
quently the case with one-piece glass candle lamps. 

Shades are largely matters of individual taste, but I would like 
to conclude this chapter with one caution. Many colours absorb 
more light than they reflect. A certain amount, more or less, must 
be wasted in shading any lamp, but, especially with a small plant, 
economy is very desirable. My caution is this: try yellow or tints 
in which yellow predominates, before deciding on any other colour. 
No tint gives better results with a minimum of light absorption, and, 
at the same time, gives a better imitation of the best light of all, that 
of the sun. 


CHAP Rast 
FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS* 


Ss HAT loose rugs or carpets on polished floors are 
preferable to fitted carpets, in the house, is a pro- 
position with which the generality of mistresses and 
maids will agree. Much depends upon the kind of 
rug or carpet, the arrangement and harmony of the 
colours, and a hundred and one other considerations, 
but from the points of view of hygiene and economy of labour (the 
latter a consideration of some importance in these days of servant 
problems) the fitted carpet is almost an unforgivable thing in the 
well-kept house. Absolute cleanliness is impossible, as there is always 
the crevice between it and the skirting, and the paint is bound to 
suffer from the impact of broom or sweeper, no matter how careful 
maids may be, and in these days a really careful maid has become 
almost a museum specimen. True, there is the vacuum-cleaner, 
but even with this the best possible sweeping or cleaning of a fitted 
carpet 1s, at the most, an apology for thoroughness. 

Before dealing with the subject of rugs and carpets, a few words 
may be advisable with regard to polished floors and their maintenance. 
The usual plan, especially in old houses where the floors are of deal, 
generally worn and uneven, is to varnish the boards with a 
so-called staining varnish. ‘That this soon wears off down to the bare 
deal flooring, especially if walked upon with boots, is one of the 
vexations in the life of the lady of the house. It is forgotten, even 





* Tn illustrating this chapter the plan has been adopted of showing, in nearly every 
instance, a portion only of each carpet or rug, in order to represent the design to as large 
a scale as the size of the page will permit. 


oe 


FLOORS AND THEIR COV ERINGS 55 


if it be known at all, that this wearing into bare patches is inevitable 
with the usual method of “ staining.” Old floors, even if they have 
not been varnished or polished before, are always greasy, more or 
less, and no stain, even if applied boiling hot, will penetrate through 
grease. To be effectual it must bite into the wood; coloured 
varnishes only lie on the surface. It would be a better, and more 
lasting, method to wash these old floors thoroughly with strong 
ammonia (of the strength sold commercially as “‘ 880’), and to paint 
them afterwards instead of experimenting with these so-called 
“staining varnishes.” There are certain strippers sold for the 
purpose of removing old varnishes, but as they are nearly all con- 
stituted of naphtha, their excessive inflammability renders them 
dangerous to use, especially by the amateur. 

There is no cheap method of dealing with old worn and greasy 
floors, and what to do for the best is often a problem. If the boards 
be of oak there is little difficulty; they can be scraped, planed, or, 
most effective of all, cleaned with steel shavings of varying degrees of 
coarseness or fineness. ‘These shavings are produced, as a by-product, 
in engineers’ workshops when steel is being turned in the lathe or 
planed with the machine. To use them is not a job for the in- 
experienced, as they will cut the hands like the edges of glass if not 
grasped in just the right way. 

With deal boards, especially if shabby and worn, a thorough 
cleaning with ammonia or soda, to remove grease, and two or three 
coats of dark brown, or even black, paint (not a japan), is the best 
cheap treatment. Thin parquet of narrow oak boards of a quarter 
of an inch in thickness is effective if a clean finished appearance be 
desired. These boards must be fixed transversely to the flooring 
(that is, in the same direction as the joists), secured with fine panel- 
pins punched home, and the small holes filled with hard coloured wax. 
Sometimes these thin strips are put down on a coating of pitch-mastic 
applied to the boards underneath, but it is not safe to dispense 
with nailing, and I do not recommend any flooring without an 
efficient air circulation beneath, as the exclusion of air, unless it be 
absolute, will result in dry-rot in a few years. With this thin parquet 


56 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


do not forget to provide access traps to electrical joint or tee boxes, 
or to gas points in the ceilings below, such as for pendant fittings, 
otherwise in the event of a leak or other fault you will be in trouble. 
The deal boards 
beneath should be 
cut out and a solid 
piece of oak (9 inches 
long by 5 inches wide 
is ample) screwed to 
the joists and flushed 
off with the top face 
of the parquet. 

It is impossible, 
in the space available 
here, to enter into 
the subject of carpets 
and rugs at any length 
or in any technical 
detail. If the wpnes 
ference be expressed 
for Oriental rugs as 
compared with Eng- 
lish pile carpets it is 
for several reasons, 
any of which are, 
to me, conclusive. 
These are: 

1. The East ema 
is, artistically, far in 
advance of theEnglish 
i 4 carpet, woven as it is 
Mossul Rug. A Cheap Grade of Persian, Dark Blue Cone. (with almost negli- 

gible exceptions) en- 
tirely by hand, and designed almost entirely by eye and tradition. 
(This applies, especially, to rugs produced by nomadic tribes of 





FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 57 


Central Asia.) With these conditions result the evidences of human 
endeavour coupled with human limitations, which the machine-made 
article never exhibits. ‘The Oriental rug is also the product of races to 
whom time is not reckoned in hours or days in the method of modern 
commercialism, and is certainly not remunerated according to 
Western standards. ‘The most expensive Eastern rug is therefore, 
in comparison, much cheaper than any Western production. 

2. The good Eastern rug or carpet, if not impoverished by sea- 
damage or washing with chemicals (about which something will be 
said later on), has an infinitely longer wearing life than any modern 
European. floor covering. ‘This is due to the superiority of the wool 
which is used, and to the tightness of the weaving. Owing to the 
lowness of the pile, as a rule, Eastern rugs are more easily cleaned than 
English carpets. 

3. Eastern rugs of any age (as distinct from the absolutely modern 
wares made for the European market), have similar historical associa- 
tions—albeit, utterly unknown to us in the great majority of in- 
stances—to those which characterise our Old-World House and its 


er ae Oe 





A Rug from the Deccan. Red Ground. 


furniture. They are, therefore, if for no other reason, the best floor 
coverings. 
4. As it is rare to find two Oriental rugs exactly alike, there is 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


little or no danger of fostering the bad habit of “ matching,” to which 


The general colour schemes of 


references have already been made. 


these rugs are so good, in nearly every instance, that you can assort 


CRIS 


es , 
= ~ oe, 
SARI DI IIIS BAI IP 


*f 6,4 


A 
ad 
esa 


RR. 


3F 


iL “ets 


3, fa fe 


49: ar We 
3 Cony lone Ou 
ae #3: "fs, 





This Type 1s often known as Bokhara. 


A Turkoman (Tekke) Rug. 


them, even in the one room, with little danger of offending the eye, 


even of the most captious critic. 


FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 59 


5. A good Oriental rug improves in value with age and reasonable 
wear; an English carpet becomes second-hand, and loses its worth in 
the market almost as soon as it is put 
down on the floor. With any wear, 
its decline in value is rapid and 
excessive. 

6. Asiatic rugs (Persian, Turkish, 
Anatolian, Caucasian, Indian, and 
Chinese) range from the cheap to 
the very rare and costly, yet maintain 
their value, within reasonable limits 
(unless owing to a period of artificial 
inflation, such as during and im- 
mediately after the Great War). It 
is possible, therefore, to collect them, 
and by a judicious process of buying 
and selling (‘“‘ weeding out” to use 


| 


r i 
age | 


% 


s 
at 
< 
Pe 
Fe 
wt 
ae 

# Bs 

% 
a 
% 
s 
“2 
= 
Ny 
ae 
% 
x 
* 
ft 
x 
Ps 
. 

v 
Ny 
¥, 

f 
x 
> 
% ; 


the collector’s succinct phrase), or 
exchanging, to acquire gradually a 
really fine collection, a joy to possess, 
an education to study, and a really ~ 





good investment to hold, yielding the & a ' 
best of all dividends, the daily pleasure A Daghestan Rug. Dark Blue Ground. 
of association and contemplation, 
always with the proviso that our occupant of the Old-World House 
has not listened to the Gospel according to the House Agent, to 
which reference has already been made. 

Oriental carpets and rugs can be divided into the following rough 
classifications: 


TURKISH. 


(a) Factory-made carpets, which include the so-called Standard 
Turkey (an abominable thing unfit to be compared with a good 
English carpet), and the Smyrna. Smyrna carpets are usually made 
with borders, corners, and central medallions. They are generally 


60 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


coarse both in colour and weaving. ‘The reds and blues, particularly 
those of the Standard Turkey, are crude and exceedingly inharmonious. 
They clash violently with anything good, in the way of furniture, 
which is placed upon them. The Demirdji Smyrnas are somewhat 
better, and have, as a rule, a pleasing all-over pattern. The Hereke 
Smyrnas are the finest and the best in colourings of all these factory- 
made Turkish carpets. | 

(b) Carpets and rugs not made in factories. ‘These come chiefly 
from Anatolia and the Armenian districts bordering on Persia. 


A 


crrerereerets «ot 


RROD LERS 
SELERSS EREDAR HE ONY 


4 
eR 


reeeeeet yc CC ot rerio Shae 


REE PINS 
5 
4 q 


NOPE LES caer 
+ 


X4 
wane 


7: 


+ 


44 
RAY: 


# 
* 

4 

a 

- 

e 

” 
o~ 
e 

* 

A 
; 
Ae 
e 


cet ort ss Ge SCALA DRS LEENAVEDRE SS SHER H 
‘a 
La 





A Section of a Shirvan Rug. General Colours, Blue on Red Octagons. 


They include the Ghiordes, Koula, Pergam or Bergam, Mujur, Ladik 
or Ladig, and the rugs from the Kurdish and the Cossack tribes, 


FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 61 


the Yuruks and the Kazaks. Being the work of nomad tribes, these 
rugs are generally named after the districts or centres in which they 
are usually met with, with the inevitable result that similar varieties 
are often found in districts widely removed from each other. 

All these tribal rugs can be divided into two classes: prayer rugs 
and those made for domestic or tent use. In the former, an arch 
with a mosque lamp suspended from its apex is usually introduced into 
the design, a single-pointed arch in the Ghiordes and a triple-point 
in the Ladik. In the tent rugs the patterns often vary considerably, 
even in the same district. 
The same applies with colour- 
ings, especially in the case of 
the Kazak rugs. 


CAUCASIAN. 


These are principally from 
the province of Daghestan 
and include the following ; 


Kuba or Kubistan, some- 
times called Kabistan. 
Shirvan. 
Derbend. 
Kazak or Cossack. 
Soumak. 
Karabagh. 
Kilim. 
A good map of the dis- 
tricts bordering the Caspian 


Sea will show these and 
other names associated with Kin kae 





Cross Stripes of White, 
Caucasian or Northern Persian Red, and Green. 


tiger Lethaps some of the 
finest carpets ever made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 
came from Ardabil, in the same district, south of Baku. 


62 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


These rugs, being the product of wandering tribes, are known 


from the centres where they are usually found. ‘This accounts, in 


some measure, for the widely diverse character of many coming from 


the Caspian shores or the adjoining provinces. ‘Thus the real origin 


of many of the Kazak rugs is obscure;* those from Shirvan are more 
localised, and, therefore, more easily recognisable. The Kilim is 


known by many other names, but is more properly a covering for a 


divan than for the floor or the beaten ground upon which a tent is 


A Kirman Mat. Rose-Pink Centre. 
(One of a Pair.) 





pitched, being woven like a 
fabric, without pile, and alike 
on both sides, after the same 
manner as an English Kidder- 
minster carpet. 


PERSIAN. 


It will be seen, from the 
foregoing, that ~ thegmtema 
‘* Persian ” often implies a dis- 
tinction without a real differ- 
ence, Azerbaijan being really 
a northern province of Persia. 
It is also quite impossible, in a 
book of this size, to give even 
a representative selection of the 
names which are applied to the 
rugs of Persia and the Caucasus, 
nor is it practicable to separate 
the one from the other, the 
carpets from Ardabil belonging 
really to the Caucasus, yet 
being regarded as not only 


Persian (as they were at the period when they were made), 
but of the very finest kind. There is also the question of age to 


* T heard recently of one of these rugs which was described as the work of a province 


in Persia called Kazak. 


FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 63 


be taken into account, many districts being renowned for their 
beautiful carpets in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, yet 
producing none at the present day or for a century or so past. 


The true. Persian 
carpets are of all grades, 
ages, and values, yet 
are all justly esteemed 
for their harmony of 
colouring and_ refine- 
ment of design as com- 
pared with those of the 
wandering tribes of 
Central Asia. Among 
the true Persian rugs 
are included those of 
Karabagh from the 
Caucasian border. 
Others which may be 
met with frequently 
are: 

Tabriz.—Fine in 
design, close and harsh 
to the touch, and tight 
inweaving. Found in 
rugs and large carpets, 
and sometimes incor- 
rectly styled as Kirman 
yet es,carper “trade. 
Very good carpets for 
the collector to com- 
mence with. 

Feraghan.—Carpets 
and rugs. Generally 





A Koula Rug. Light Blue Ground. 


satisfactory as a class, but sometimes rather lifeless in colouring. 


Good wearing qualities, and not expensive to buy. 


64 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Saraband.—Carpets, long “‘ runners ”’ or strips, and rugs. Gener- 
ally with pine-cone pattern of red on blue ground. Good pieces 
for the collector, 
ranging from the 
inexpensive to the 
exceedingly _ fine 
and rare. 

Fushaghan.— 
Also sometimes 
known incorrectly 
as Ispahan. Fine 
and close in design 
and weave; among 
the best of the 
Persian rugs. It 
should be noted 
here that what are 
usually known as 
the real Ispahan 
carpets occupy a 
class the existence 
of which many 
authorities do not 
admit.* These 
carpets are never 





Section of a Hamad an “‘ Runner.” 


later than early eighteenth century, often much earlier. In certain 
great houses, notably at Knole Park (which has the advantage of 
being open to the public on certain days in the week), are examples 
of these sixteenth and seventeenth century Ispahan carpets, which 
for design and wonder of colouring, jewel-like blues and greens, and, 


* It is impossible, in the deficient state of our knowledge of early carpets (fifteenth 
to seventeenth century), to hazard even a guess at the districts from which they originated. 
Certainly in design and colouring these fine carpets and rugs, which are known in the trade 
as Ispahan, appear to occupy a class distinct from any other products of the looms of 
Persia. 


FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 65 


above all, for the incomparable Ispahan orange and rose shades, 
have no rivals among the rugs of Persia. One can say truly that 





A Chinese Rug. Peach-Bloom Ground. 


one has never known a really fine Persian carpet until the wonderful 
specimens at Knole, Holland House, and elsewhere have been seen. 
I 5 


66 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Their value is, of course, fabulous. Reverting to carpets within the 
means of the average collector, the following may be noted: 

Muskabad. — Usually 
remarkable for their lus- 
trous pile. 

Hamadan.—Small and 
good in design,and not ex- 
pensive. Generally with a 
border of plain camel-hair. 

Kashan.—A rug which 
is often woven of fine silk. 
Sometimes known as Saruk 
when made from wool. 

Saruk.—Varying from 
the coarse to the ex- 
tremely fine ye pee 
Kashan.) 

Sehna.— Patterns of 
which vary very widely, 
from small stripes to diaper 
pine cones, and sometimes 
medallions and corners. 

Bijar.—Small rugs 
and large carpets. Often 
called by other names. 

Khorassan.—F rom the 

A Ladig Prayer Rug. Red Centre. province of that name, 
which includes the 
Meshed. Usually bold in design and good in colouring. 

Herat.—Usually in a well-known diaper design which is found in 
other rugs, and styled the Herati pattern. 

Kirman.—Never of any great age, delicate and soft in design and 
colouring, often due to incredible fineness in weaving. Perhaps the 
best of the less expensive Persian carpets for delicacy of colour and 
general appearance. 





PLOORS AND THEIR, COVERINGS 67 


Shiraz.—From the province of Farsistan, close to the Persian 
Gulf. Sometimes of silk, and frequently with a design of hexagonal 


| 
| = 


ek 


5 
4 


cry, 
3 z ‘ey 





A Ghiordes Prayer Rug. 


panels. It is said that at one time the carpets and rugs of Shiraz 
were reserved for royal use, but there appears to be no definite 
authority for the statement. 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


68 


& 


PRR Re esecgeerompte. 


See EIN 
et. 
ao 


Pn SE 
kok cae 


%, 
: 





. Pink-Red Ground. 


A Feraghan Carpet 


FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 69 


CENTRAL ASIAN OR TURKOMAN. 


Include the rugs from Western Turkestan (usually known as 
Bokhara, although very few are actually made there) and from nomad 
tribes such as the Tekke and the Pindé. ‘These tribes roam from the 
northern frontier of Afghanistan up to Samarkand and west to the 
eastern shore of the Caspian Sea. 

South of this territory we get the true Afghan rugs, often in- 
correctly known 
is bsoehar a, 
generally with a 
pattern of large 
octagons in dark 
red and white, 
coarse and fiery, 
tyoicale of the 
warlike natures 
Oteethe tribes 


themselves. 
Howth of 
Afghanistan and 


south-east of 
Persia, abutting 
on the Arabian 
Sea, down to the 
port of Karachi, 
with India as 
ites seerasitern 
neighbour, is 





the province of 
Beluchistan. 


Section of a Saraband (Mir) Runner. (One of a Pair.) Late 
The Beluch rugs Seventeenth or Early Eighteenth Century. 


are coarse, and 
with strong dark red colourings like the hue of congealed blood, 


suggestive and characteristic of their makers. 


70 THE OLD WORLDSHOUSE 





A Kashan Carpet. Green Ground, Buff Centre. 


PLOORS AND VTHEIR: COVERINGS vial 





A Persian (Kesas) Carpet. Blue-Green Ground, Red Centre. The Ispahan Motives are 
followed closely here. 


Tie THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


CHINESE Rucs AND CARPETS. 


These are now made for the Western markets and are sold at 
commercial prices. ‘The older varieties usually have a blue design 
on a yellow or peach-bloom ground, and when fine are very valuable. 





A Finely Knotted Saruk Rug. (One of a Pair.) 


FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS Ta 


The usual Chinese carpet of commerce has, as a rule, a white design 
on a blue ground. 

The greatest confusion in the classification of Oriental carpets and 
tugs prevails in the trade. ‘This is due, partly, to the difficulty in 
obtaining exact knowledge regarding localities of origin, owing to the 
nomadic character of the tribes which produce them, but chiefly 
to the habit of dealers of promoting their wares to one or two grades 
higher than the one to which they actually belong: Afghans to Bok- 
haras, and so on. Both importers and merchants are frequently 
guilty of using names of districts, wide apart from each other, to 


jE | 
me 


MAK 
pS OLAAY 
ey 


wy 
ey 


LA ae A 
Tee. 





indicate the rugs of the one locality, and this often among themselves 
in their dealings. It is almost analogous to an assemblage of traders 


74 THE OLDWORLD HOUSE 


carrying on their business, each in a different tongue, at the same 
time. The trade, in this country, in Oriental carpets of the finer 
kinds is in the hands of Armenians, almost exclusively, and there is 
no doubt that they do know their wares, in a way which no other race 
does, Turks and Persians only excepted. 

The subject is so wide and so complicated that to attempt any 
general description, such as the one given here, is to be inaccurate, 
perforce, by reason of the necessary brevity, if for no other. 

A few cautions in buying rugs may be stated in conclusion of this 
chapter. 7 

Oriental rugs, other than factory-made goods, are rarely, if ever, 
woven in strictly rectangular form. ‘The degree of departure from the 
square or oblong which may be permitted is a matter of personal 
taste on the part of the buyer. The exactly woven nomadic rug 
hardly exists, but a good piece, no matter how irregular in outline, 
should lie flat on the floor. I do not refer to one which has been 
folded up for a long time, or the corners of which have curled, as these 
faults may be remedied by damping, stretching, or by heavy weights. 
The rug, however, which owes any such defects to uneven weaving 
should be seriously discounted in price, as it will lie unevenly as long 
as it exists, and nothing will remedy this fault. 

While these Oriental rugs possess, as a rule, wearing qualities 
which are really wonderful, considering how thin many of them 
are, they can be impoverished very seriously by damp, moth, sea- 
damage, or by washing with chemicals or acids. ‘The first three may 
be the result of accident or carelessness, but the last is deliberately 
done to give a spurious appearance of age. Unfortunately this 
reprehensible practice seriously impairs the wearing life of the rug. 
The intending purchaser will be well advised, therefore, to observe 
the following cautions: 

1. Insist on the carpet or rug being laid flat on the floor, not 
suspended from a wall, or thrown, carelessly, across a settee. 

2. Inspect the rug from the back, and look for signs of repairs, 
damage, or splitting of the warp. If in doubt, hold it up to the 
light. 


FLOORS AND THEIR COVERINGS 7s 


3. Gather up a fold of the rug between the clenched fists held 
closely together, and then strain the threads by turning the hands, 
in a semicircular motion, away from each other, so as to put a strain 
on the backing. Try this both ways, of the warp and the weft. If 
the rug be sound nothing will happen, but if sea~-damaged or im- 
poverished by chemical washing, the back threads will crack and the 
rug break into a slit or hole. It is as well to ask permission before 
applying this test, but if the rug be sold as sound, it should not be 
refused. 

4. Fold the rug tightly, and look at the knotting from the face side 
very closely. If the colours appear much brighter close to the 





A Section of a Persian Carpet (Ispahan ?). Mid-Sixteenth Century. 


Emots)or irom the back, then bleaching by chemicals is to be 
suspected. If a number of minute holes can be seen when the rug 


76 THE OLD WORLD HOUSE 


is held to the light, then it has, ‘probably, suffered from the ravages 
of moth. 

5. A rug much worn, or badly mended, will not stand much wear. 
Its days are gone. Such a piece, especially if it be intended to put it 
on the floor, will be a bad investment. 

6. A fine rug is better than the most gilt-edged security or the 
most tastefully printed share certificate ever devised. ‘That is why 
the best rugs in old-world houses are, as a rule, found north of the 


Tweed. 


CA EAL Raa, 
mee DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 


xy, I should not be necessary to have to point out the 
|} various types in furniture which are evolved at 
certain periods, but, judging from enquiries which 
39.5) are made for pieces which are utterly anachronistic, 
“> some hints in this direction are teally required, 1 
propose to subdivide English furniture into three 
broad aheee (1) Chairs, which include settees, stools, and smaller 
pieces ; (2) wall furniture, chests, bookcases, cabinets, wardrobes, 
cupboards or presses; and (3) floor furniture, tables and kindred 
articles. Each section is capable of further sub-classification. Chairs, 
settees, settles, and stools are all very old in type and function. Up- 
holstery is rarely found before 1660, and then commences with squabs 
or pads, lightly filled with tow or horse-hair, and placed on a seat or 
tied to a back. The chair with fixed upholstery does not become 
common before 1685, although exceptional pieces are found of much 
@atier date. EHasy ~ grandfather,” or wing chairs, are rare before 
1685, but came into general use during the first quarter of the 
eelteentwecentury. Ihe settle is an oak piece, but the settee, 
especially of the upholstered kind, with solid padded backs and seats, 
begins shortly after 1689. It develops into the open-back type, 
formed by a multiple of two or more chair backs, shortly after 1700. 
Upholstered furniture, in possessing a certain definite purpose, does 
not vary much from that with seat and back of solid wood at any 
period after the Gothic. Such fashions as the day-bed or long couch 
are merely logical developments from the chair-form, the seat being 
extended so that the user can recline instead of sitting. 
TE 





78 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


W all Furniture.—The chest 1s an oak piece, as a rule, and the type 
is early. Chests were made during the lacquer period and occasion- 
ally of mahogany, but, in a general sense, the cabinet or press with 
doors supplants the chest with a lid, towards the end of the seven- 
teenth century. ‘The court or standing cupboard, the hutch, and the 
credence, are all oak pieces, but they resemble, in principle, the 
cabinets of the marqueterie or lacquer periods. ‘They differ in the 
sense that the later development was in the direction of the greater 
division of accommodation. ‘The chest is a box into which things are 
laid or thrown together. The standing cupboard has two doors 
below and one or two above. The advantage of providing a piece of 
furniture in which articles can be placed in an upright position, while 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (1) The Type of 1670. Closed. 
(Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh.) 


stuffs, fabrics, or linen can be laid flat and kept separate, was soon appre- 
ciated, and we get the piece with a cupboard above and drawers below. 


DEV ELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 79 


When the faculty of writing becomes a general accomplishment, 
which is not until the close of the Stuart period, special furniture 
begins to be made for the purpose. The first pieces are the hinged 
fall-front escritoires, in cabinet form, with drawers below and nests 
of small drawers and compartments behind the large writing flap, 
The second type is the bureau, either with or without a cabinet upper- 
part. Next follows, in the middle of the eighteenth century, the 
writing table with leather-lined top, either on four legs or with two 
pedestals containing drawers or cupboards. The pedestal writing 
table is never a walnut picce, still less does it belong to the oak period. 





P; 
* 
* 


The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. The Type of 1670. Open.* 
(Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh.) 


English furniture, in the oak years, must have been very scanty 
in amount and variety, and each piece must have had a definite use. 


* By an omission on the part of the photographer, the two “ gates” were not opened 
at right angles, to support the flap, when this picture was taken. 


80 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


In the walnut years this defined purpose loses its earlier significance, 
in many instances, when use begins to be subordinated to decorative 
purpose, until, towards the end of the eighteenth century, we get 
such pieces as tripod banner or pole screens, which have no function 
at all beyond one of ornament, unless to act as a shade to the fire, 
where one would have thought that the obvious alternative was to 
sit further away from the grate, not to evolve a special, and often a 
costly, piece of furniture as ill-fitted, as a rule, to withstand extreme 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (2) The Type of 1685-90. Very Rare. 
(C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


heat as the powdered face of a Georgian beauty. Types multiply 
exceedingly during the eighteenth century in the direction of tables 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 81 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (3) The Fall-Front Writing Cabinet of 1690-5. 
(C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


82 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


designed for specific as compared with general purposes, such as dining 
tables, side tables, card tables, occasional tables, writing tables and 
the like. 

The china-cabinet pre-supposes china worthy of the dignity of 
being placed on an open niche or behind doors, and bookcases indicate 
books in sufficient number to warrant a special piece of furniture 





cs 


The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (4) The Bureau in form of a Desk on Chest 
of Drawers. The Type of 1695. 


made to contain them. Pepys possessed a library as early as the first 
years of Charles II., and Sympson made the bookcases to contain the 


ey EP LOPMENT OFMIYPES IN FURNITURE 82 


volumes. Both library 
and bookcases are now 
in Magdalen College, 
Oxford. Pepys, how- 
ever, was highly excep- 
tional in possessing 
books in any number 
(although numbers 
existed, and we can 
only assume that read- 
ing was not a favourite 
pursuit at the time), 
and the bookcase does 
not become a general 
anicleuntilatter 1700. 
The china-cabinet is 
even later. I haveseen 
china-cases of theperiod 
of Anne, or even earlier, 
but rarely made to 
display their contents, 
the doors being nearly 
all fitted with solid 
panels of wood. The 
true china-cabinet is 
essentially a Georgian 
piece. Where a walnut 
Galanet yor the early 
years of the eighteenth 
century is glazed and 
sash-barred, such glaz- 
ing is nearly always 
peter addition, 








The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (5) The 
Desk on Chest Stand with Cabinet abooe. The 
Original Silvered Glass in the Upper Panels has been 
Replaced by Clear Sheet Glass. 1695-1700 Type. 
(Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh.) 


although transparent glass was often substituted for original silvered 
plates, as in the cabinet above. 


84 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


In the category of wall furniture must be placed tables intended 
to stand against the wainscotting, which includes the sideboard. Up 
to almost the end of the Chippendale period, the side table, on four 
or more legs, and with or without drawers in the frieze, acted as the 
sideboard; etymologically, it zs the true sideboard. In the hands of 
Hepplewhite and his school, its functions were increased by the 
provision of drawers for napery, cellarettes to hold wine bottles, 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (6) The Plain-Sided Bureau of 1700-10. 
(Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh.) 


square boxes or round urns made to hold knives, forks, and spoons, 
or lined with lead and fitted with taps for rose-water. Then we 


WEE LOPMENT OF TYPES IN JED TRING UOT Dy italien 2 
get the sideboard 


Pope ine) two, or 
even thtee stages, 
arranged for the 
display of plate, and 
a brass rail or curtain 
rod at the back to 
complete the effect. 
Defined on _ these 
lines, there is no 
such thing as a side- 
beara, © as distinct 
from the side table, 
even as late as the 
Chippendale period, 
yet I have heard of 
enquiries for side- 
boards of  seven- 
teenth-century date, 
when the standing 
cupboard or the 
credence were the 
only pieces of furni- 
ture which were 
Used efor this pur- 
pose, ~ Lo expect to 
and sucha piece as 
a Stuart sideboard is 
analogous to looking 
for an Elizabethan 
motor-car. 


Bedsteads.— The 


bedstead of both the The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (7) The Double- 
seventeenth and Domed Bureau Cabinet of 1700. 


eighteenth centuries 





86 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (8) The Bureau- 
Cabinet Type of 1695-1700, with Strong Dutch Influence. 
(Sir Leicester Harmsworth, Bart.) 


was either of the 
four-post or the 
open-sided box- 
type. The bed- 
stead with head- 
and_ foot - boards 
only, and without 
tester, but some- 
times witles 
separate canopy 
or draperies sus- 
pended from a 
corona, was typl- 
cally French, and 
the idea, in spite 
of its obvious 
advantages from 
the point of view 
of hygiene, did 
not appear to 
become popular 
here until the 
very end of the 
eighteenth cen- 
tury. © Ehesopen 
bedstead of the 
oak or walnut 
periods does not 
exist. 

Tables, “apart 
from those made 
to stand against a 
wall, can be best 
considered in 


order oigetyipe: 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 87 








The Bureau Cabinet on Opposite Page, Shown Open. 


The long refectory table dates from very early times; its successor, 
the draw table (see Chapter IX), is a seventeenth-century innovation 


88 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


borrowed from Holland and Germany. ‘Tables of small size (what 


we know as ‘ 


‘ occasional’) are rare in the early seventeenth century, 


but are made during Cromwell’s period and after. In spite of the 

















The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (9) The Plain- 
Sided Bureau of 1700-10, with Cabinet above. The 
Lattice Glazing of the Upper Doors 1s not Original. 


rage for play, card 
tables are almost un- 
known in the Stuart 
period; they do not 
become general until 
the eighteenth ween. 
tury. Writing tables 
have already been 
considered. ‘The tri- 
pod form of furniture 
dates from the early 
years of Anne, but 
only for pedestals or 
guéridons made to 
support busts or can- 
delabra. ‘The tripod 
table is not known, as 
far as 1 “am aware 
(unless we include 
tables of triangular 
form, which are sup- 
ported on three in- 
stead of four legs), 
until the middle of 
the eighteenth cen- 
tury. — [ereterstomeine 
kind supported on a 
central” piligraeos 
column with a tripod 
base. 

It is in the bed- 


room where the 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 89 


absence of certain well-known types is remarkable. Thus the wash- 
stand, or anything like it, just begins to appear in the last decade or 





i 


The Development af the Scrutotr or Bureau, (10) The Desk Mounted on Cabriole-Leg 
Stand. The Smalier Type of 1710-15. (C.H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


two of the eighteenth century, either combined with dressing-glasses 
and boxes and other apparatus of the toilet in such multiple pieces as 
the ‘‘ vanity tables,” or as a small corner article, with a hole in the top 
for the basin, which, in size, could not have greatly exceeded the 
dimensions of the average pudding-bowl. ‘This is in the last twenty 


go THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


years of the eighteenth century; before that, nothing! How did our 
ancestors wash, or did they wash at all? 

Similarly, the dressing-table combined with a toilet glass (although 
known in the Chippendale period—e.g., the example at Kimbolton) 
was an exceedingly rare piece at any period prior to 1800. Its place 
must have been taken by the chest of drawers with one of the small 
glasses (oval, circular, or shield-shaped, on a box-plateau), placed on 
top. It is possible to find these dressing-glasses of as early a date as 
that of Anne. They are usually small in size, and with a miniature 
bureau in place of the later box. Very charming many of them are, 





eae 
eae: 


The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (11) Rare Type of Bureau with Side-Opening 
Flaps. (C.D. Rotch, Esq.) 


although good examples have become very scarce of recent years, and 
expensive to buy in consequence. 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 91 


The hanging wardrobe is also a rare piece, and when found prior 
to 1770 is usually an old cabinet bedstead or a press which has been 
converted. Masculine attire did not demand hanging space; clothes 
were usually folded and laid on trays. Sheraton was the first of the 
eighteenth-century designers to illustrate in a published book a typical 
hanging wardrobe. Feminine garments must also have been laid 
away in presses, chests or cupboards. ‘The eighteenth-century ward- 
robe, as a general thing, was a small piece of furniture, with very little 
holding capacity. It was often reinforced by one of the double chests, 
known as “tallboy,”’ and the two pieces were often made to correspond. 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau, The Bureau (11) Shown Open, Although 
Early in Type, this is probably a Late Eighteenth-Century Piece. 


Some articles which were made for special purposes, such as the 
small powdering tables, which went out of use when wigs ceased to be 


92 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


worn, do not recur again, but die out with the departing fashion. 
Such of these wig stands as survive to-day are useful for flowers or 
pot-pourri. With these diminutive washstands and dressing-glasses 
went such toilet implements as tongue-scrapers and back-scratchers, 
which the later cleaner living and an occasional bath rendered un- 
necessary. 

The cheval glass made to stand on the floor is a rare article of 
furniture prior to 1760, but becomes very general after that date. 
Those of the Sheraton period, with their original candle-brackets, are 
desirable pieces, especially when not too large and unwieldy. 

Cleanliness did not rank as a virtue, but rather as an eccentricity, 
even as late as the end of the Georgian period. Baths were unknown, 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (12) Mahogany Writing Table with Carved 
and Gilt Enrichments. Period and Style of William Kent, c. 1725. (Ihe Duke 
of Devonshire.) 


and washing facilities were on the homeopathic scale. Inside sanita- 
tion of any kind was exceptional—in fact, it was rare in the early days 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 93 


of Victoria. We have advanced considerably during the last fifty years 
or so. Nowadays the workman’s cottage is incomplete unless it 
contain a bath, if it be only in the scullery. Its uses vary from that 
of the weekly wash-tub to a receptacle for coal or vegetables. It 
will be better appreciated, perhaps, by the younger generation. 


* * * * * 


There is no more fascinating hobby than the collecting of links 
in the chain of English furniture evolution. If one possess the 
purse of a millionaire and a house the size of a large museum, then it 
is possible to possess, and live with, the actual pieces themselves. ‘To 
one whose means do not suffice (other considerations do not matter 
very much. then), there is an easier and cheaper method—to 


collect photographs. This has been my hobby for many years, 


; 
3 
$ 
: 3 
‘ 
} 
i 
: 
: 
¢ 
a 
¢ 
a 
# 
i 
2 
s 
3 

a 
s 
i 
; 
3 
2 
i 
: 


| 
i 
H 


{ 
‘ 
; 
; 
@ 
si 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (13) Mahogany Writing Table with Carved 
and Guilt Enrichments. Period and Influence of William Kent, c. 1730. (The 
Duke of Devonshire.) 


with the result that I can study pieces, scattered all over Great 
Britain, at my leisure, and can arrange them, photographically, in 


94 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


their sequence of development. Incidentally, by the forming of 
such a collection, the illustrating of a book such as this becomes a 
possibility. There is, naturally, the vexatious thought that many 
links in the evolutionary chain are missing, but there must be some 
limits assigned, and even if I possessed a complete series of every 
type, space-considerations would forbid their illustration in these 
pages. It may be pointed out, with some advantage to the collector, 
that the more complete the sequence of such photographs becomes, 
the more evident is the fact, that a new type entirely, is rarely, if ever, 
created. Here and there we find a piece which, in design or purpose, 
appears to be an absolute novelty until we discover another which 
connects it with a well-known class. It is almost akin to penetrating 


a : F SS Ree 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (14) Mahogany Writing Table with Trussed 
Pilasters, c.1730. In the Style of William Kent. (C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


to the inner consciousness of the old craftsmen, utterly unknown to 
us by name or record, when we notice how an idea has been borrowed 


BEV ELOLPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 95 


from one source, a detail from another, or a constructional 
invention from a third, all combined together in the one piece. 


I propose, in conclusion 
of this chapter, to attempt, 
in text and illustration, to 
trace the development of the 
writing table or cabinet, in 
form of escritoire, bureau 
bookcase, and table, from 
the earliest type, that of the 
Petermoiuait years, to the 
close of the eighteenth 
century. Gaps exist, doubt- 
less, but these the collector, 
who trains his eye to observe 
and his mind to remember, 
can fill in for himself. For 
convenience of reference 
I have numbered each 
examples here.- The same 
evolutionary system can be 
traced in the instances of 
the chair, the bookcase, and 
tables of various kinds, 
dining, occasional, card, etc., 
and the same system can be 
adopted, with such pieces, 
as 1s outlined in these pages. 

The bureau or desk, in 
the sense in which the term 
igstised here; is, primarily, a 


box with a sloping lid, and 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. 
(15) Mahogany Writing Cabinet on Carved 
Paw-Feet, ¢. 1730-40. 


examples are known as early as the first years of the seventeenth 
century. ‘They are always small in size, and were made, probably, 
for the use of the illuminator of manuscripts, being fitted inside, 


96 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


as a general rule, for bladders of colour, brushes, and the like. It 
may be an arbitrary distinction, but I think the chief difference 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. 
(16) Mahogany Bureau Cabinet with 
Silvered Glass Panels in Upper Doors, 
c. 1740. (Sir Leicester. Harmsworth, 
Bart.) 


between the desk and the bureau 
is that in the former the lid is 
hinged at the top, in the latter 
at the bottom. ‘The desk-lid, 
when closed, gives the necessary 
support to the paper, card or 
book of the writer or the 
illuminating artist. Where these 
lids are carved, which is often 
the case, even thie taciityaae 
denied, the desk then being 
merely a portable box made to 
contain things, the sloping lid 
being only for the sake of 
appearance. 

The true bureau has the lid 
hinged at the bottom, and when 
opened is supported on dravw- 
out slides or pull-out “ gate” 
legs, such as on No. 1 here. The 
inside of the flap is used for 
writing, and behind are usually 
small drawers or compartments 
for books or papers. The late 
seventeenth - century bureau 
differs from  ~ thateemecnmemeute 
eighteenth in two important 
respects; the slope of the top 
is flatter and the bureau proper, 
whether on a leg-stand or a 
chest of drawers, is distinct, 


in the earliest examples of all, with the desk overhanging at 
the sides, as in No. 1 here. The spiral legs in this bureau are of 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 97 


the kind known as a double-bine, semi-open twist. The corner legs 
act as pivots on which the opening gates turn. In the photograph 


showing this bureau open, 
the two “gates” should 
have been pulled out at 
right angles to their present 
position, where they would 
act as supports to the top. 
This example is of oak partly 
veneered with walnut, and 
dates from about 1670. 
Rare as this type is, the 
one shown here in No. 2 is 
more exceptional still. This 
is truly a secretaire, having 
a throw-back lid and a fall- 
front, without the bureau 
plepewmlt is of much too 
rare a form to take a defined 
place in the chronological 
arrangement of English 
furniture, although in that 
of Holland this secretaire 
form is somewhat better 
known. The veneer is a 
pollarded or burred yew 
free. of fine colour; The 
escutcheons are original, but 
the drop-handles are later, 
probably an addition soon 
after the piece was made to 
obviate the necessity of using 





The Development of the Scrutotr or Bureau. 
(17) Mahogany Bureau Cabinet, c. 1750. 
(F. Rochelle Thomas, Esq.) 


the key to open a drawer. Had the original intention been to provide 
both escutcheon and handle the two would either have been combined, 
or two ring-handles provided for each drawer. Apparently the piece 


T 


7 


98 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


lacks the finish of bracket-feet, but it is original in its present state, 
with concealed castors underneath. 


The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. 


(18) Rare Mahogany Bureau China-Cabinet 


of Early Chippendale Period, c. 1750. 





It is somewhat too early in type 


for a plinth, and, in addition, 
this would have raised the 
writing bed too high for com- 
fortable use. 

A much more usual, and, 
presumably, much. more 
popular form was the fall- 
front ‘‘ scrutoir”’? as shown in 
No. 3. Pieces ‘of this kame 
are found either veneered with 
plain walnut or inlaid with 
marqueterie. . 1) Haye” meyer 
seen one decorated with 
lacquer. It is probable that 
they were made to pair with 
the double-door cabinets of 
the same period, which they 
frequently resemble very 
closely in many details. One 
significant change occurs in 
the building of houses of the 
lesser type shortly after about 
1680; the walls are not so 
massive, and instead of the 
flue stacks being built as out- 
side projections, . (they mare 
formed inside, in what we 
know as _ chimney - breasts. 
Such a feature in a Stuart 
house or one of earlier period 


is an anachronism. ‘This breast involved recesses on either side of the 
fireplace, and engendered the fashion of making certain pieces not 
exactly in pairs, but in couples made to balance, if not to-correspond. 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 99 


In the living rooms we find these fall-front escritoires, with doored 
cabinets to match; in the bedrooms the wardrobe with sliding trays 








The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau, The Cabinet (18) Shown Open. 


was made to balance with a double chest of drawers (in England 
known as a “ tall-boy,” and in America as a “ high-boy”*) 
* Both names are ofrecentorigin. The ‘‘haut-boy” (Fr. haut-bors) is the old name for 


the oboe, and “ tall-boy’’ during the eighteenth century indicated either a tall drinking 
glass or a chimney-pot. In old inventories these “ tall-boys ’’ are styled double-chests. 


100 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


made of the same height and width and with cornices and bases 
to match. 





The Carved Pediment of (18) Shown to Larger Scale. 


One was accustomed, in the mid-Victorian novels, to read of 
secret hiding-places in old pieces of furniture, almost as important 
as the sliding panel which flew aside when a spring was touched. 
I have never met with the latter, and considering the way in 
which old wainscottings were made, with panels seldom more 
than about fourteen inches by nine, I am emboldened to make 
the statement that they never existed, Horace Walpole, Mrs. Rad- 
cliffe, or “‘ Monk” Lewis notwithstanding. It is in these upright 
secretaires, however, where ingenious secret cavities are frequently 
contrived, although some thought and a few measurements will 
always cause their presence to be suspected. 

The true bureau—that is, one not combined with cabinet or book- 
case—develops into a desk on a chest of long drawers, without the 
kneehole as in No. 2, the forward projection of the flap, when 
opened, rendering this unnecessary. The latest type of the seven- 
teenth century bureau is still a separate desk on a stand, sometimes 
with an overhang on each side (an example is given in the chapter 
on Margueterie Furniture), more often of the same width as the 
chest, but divided from it by a boldly projecting moulding, as in 
No. 4. In No. 5 there is this side-overhang, without dividing mould- 
ing, with a cabinet upper part, the doors of which were originally 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE tot 


glazed with silvered glass. The cut-out bracket plinth is a restoration 
here. In Nos. 4 and 5 will be noticed an innovation which persists, 
with the slope-fronted bureau, throughout the eighteenth century; 
the fall is supported, when down, on two pull-out slides each fitted 
with either a knob or a small drop-handle. Beneath the slope-front 
also is nearly always a cavity, access to which is obtained by pushing 
back a slide immediately behind the writing bed. I have seen these 
slides made to release only by pressure on a secret spring, usually 
formed of a long piece of wood fixed at one end only. The signs of 
the fixing of these wooden “ springs” can often be seen inside these 
slides, but either owing to wear, accident or force, they are nearly 
always missing at the present day. 

The eighteenth-century bureau-development is in the direction 
of the plain side, as in No. 6, which is an obvious economy in manu- 
facture, with little or no loss in decorative value. The bureau also 
begins to broaden, some walnut examples being as large as 40 or 45 
inches in width. The interiors are also nearly always very elaborately 
fitted, with central cupboard flanked by fluted pilasters attached to the 
fronts of narrow vertical drawers. Occasionally the door and pilasters 
are fixed to a central box made to pull out, with secret drawers or 
compartments behind, with releasing springs actuated either from 
the inside of the cupboard or the small drawer cavity below. It is a 
sign of high quality in the walnut pieces of this period when cross-cut 
wood is substituted for the long-grain, although the former is not 
nearly as durable, and requires frequent attention in the way of 
re-glueing. 

The double-domed bureau, as in No. 7, must have been a very 
fashionable piece, judging from the numbers which have survived. 
The Dutch inspiration of this form is to be suspected, and in No. 8 
it is even more convincing. ‘This example has an unusual form of 
cornice, and is of extremely fine quality throughout. Every surface 
is veneered with pieced pollarded olive (often known as “‘ maza-wood”’), 
and the inside fittings of this superb piece are worthy of close examina- 
tion. In a later chapter, dealing with the plain walnut furniture 
of the early period of Anne, other examples of this fine manner will 


Lo THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


be illustrated, perhaps, in many respects, the most interesting, as 
it is certainly the most decorative, in the whole history of English 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. 
(19) Mahogany Bureau Bookcase of the 
Early Hepplewhite Period, c. 1780. 
(Viscount Rothermere.) 


furniture. 

The double-domed cabinet, 
No. 9, differs from Nome 7am 
having the lower part with flush 
sides, the projecting moulding 
dividing the bureau from its 
chest being omitted It can 
therefore be regarded as being 
somewhat later in date. 

The next stage in evolution 
is to mount the bureau on 
cabriole, or turned, legs, without 
superstructure. Furniture has 
a tendency to become smaller, 
and of the character known as 
occasional,” sin themiastws eam 
of Anne and the early part of 
the reign of George Iilicse 
small bureaux are nearly always 
made in two sections, an upper 
part, generally fitted with side 
handles, made to drop into a 
lower stage, designed in imita- 
tion of the stools of the time 
(No. 10). A’ similar = buceadme 
fashion will be noticed in many 
of the walnut dressing-glasses of 
the same period. ‘This double- 
carcase form of bureau _per- 
sists throughout the early 


mahogany years, from 1725 to nearly 1750. 
A peculiar and rare form of the bureau is given in No. 11. Ex- 
ceptional in character as this piece is, by a curious coincidence I 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 102 


encountered another within a year. Both were incomplete, yet the 
one possessed what the other lacked in each case. Some device 
@ppers) to be necessary 
hereue toe Mmaintain - the 
opened flaps in a_hori- 
zontal position, but no 
signs of any such contriv- 
ance are evident. In the 
second example a somewhat 
clumsy attempt to secure 
this support had been made 
with brass chains, but they 
were unsatisfactory and in 
the way of the person using 
the desk. There are several 
peculiarities in the one 
shown here. There is a 
flap at the back which can 
be lowered so that two 
people can use the bureau 
at the same time. ‘The 
front writing bed pulls 
forward, and is cut out on 
the right-hand side, possibly 
to accommodate a floor 
lamp or tall candle-stand. 
The upper stretcher has an 





upward projecting rail on 


which ran two drawers, The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. The 
Oferrateeeach end, ‘with Cabinet (19) with Bureau Open. 


semicircular fronts and 

centrally grooved at the bottom, but both are missing here, 
although present in the other desk which I saw. There are 
several ingenious contrivances and receptacles in this piece 
‘which a close examination of the two illustrations will dis- 


104 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


cover. The wood is a close-grained Spanish mahogany without 


figure. 


With the early mahogany years the pedestal writing table becomes 
a fashionable piece in the larger houses of this period. ‘Two examples 





The Development of the Scrutoir or 
Bureau. (20) Rare Secretatre 
Cabinet of Early Chippendale 
Period, c.1750. (Capt. The Hon. 
Sir Fohn H. Ward, K.C.V.O.) 





are given in Nos. 12 and 13, both of 
which exhibit the influence of William 
Kent, and architects of his school, who 
were commencing, at this date, to 
usurp the province of the joiner in 
the designing of furniture; iiiese 
tables must have been very costly to 
produce even at the time when they 
were made, and there are many 
evidences, in the rounded ends of 
the one and the curious plan of the 
other, that they were designed with 
very little knowledge of the possi- 
bilities or the limitations of timber. 

Another of these elaborate tables, 
certainly more rare than beautiful, is 
shown in No. 14, where there is a 
key-patterned frieze similar in design 
to No. 21, below which are heavy 
trusses, .or pilasters. | Here iene 
definite sacrifice of proportion and 
beauty to elaboration, which dis- 
tinguishes so much of the architect- 
designed furniture of this period. 

In houses of more modest character 
the bureau still retained its favour, 
but was more generally combined 
with the cabinet or the bookcase 
than before. No. 15 is a good type 


of the bureau-cabinet of 1730-40, with solid panelled doors above, 
behind which are divisions for books and papers. A somewhat later 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 105 


fashion is the substitution of glass, secured with putty or beads in 
a built-up lattice-work, as in No. 16. This piece has the early type 
of rosetted handle with pierced brass backplate. A more elaborate 
version of the same form is illustrated in No. 17, where the fall 
of the bureau is supported on two small drawers. ‘The interior 
fitments here are exceptionally choice and elaborate, and the 
general design, especially of the upper part, suggests the architect 
rather than the joiner. 

Two views, open and closed, and a large-scale illustration of the 
pediment, are shown of what is, possibly, the finest, and certainly 
the most characteristic of all the examples in this chapter (No. 18). 
The upper part has been made especially for the display of china, as 
the doming of each compartment precludes its use as a bookcase. 
This cabinet is in the early style of the Chippendale school, and the 


care and attention which has been bestowed on apparently trifling 


»| p/tho[elelelelal 








The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau, (21) Mahogany Writing Table with Extension 
Flaps, c. 1770. 


details is amazing. In the doors the two escutcheons balance, but are 
in reverse, which has entailed a separate modelling and casting. The 


106 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


framings are veneered with finely figured mahogany, cross-banded 
and mitred at the corners. ‘The pediment is one of the most success- 
ful, and the most unusual, examples of choice designing which I have 
had the good fortune to encounter. 

The two views of No. 19 show the Hepplewhite version of the 
same form, similar in general form, but widely different in character 
and detail when closely examined. ‘The construction of the fall, 
which is not apparent in the illustration, for obvious reasons, is peculiar, 
yet according to the rules laid down by Thomas Sheraton in his 
“* Drawing Book.” ‘The flap is formed of a number of narrow pieces 
of deal only 3 inches in width, which are glued together, in tongue- 











SSeS es 


The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (22) A Secretaire Writing Table probably 
made for the use of an estate steward; c.1770. (Ff. Dupuis Cobbold, Esq., D.L.) 


and-groove joints, without end clamps. The shrinkage, therefore, 
is diminished, when compared with a single slab of wood, and there 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 107 


is not the usual ugly overhang of the clamps at top and bottom which 
any such shrinkage entails. 

To the early Chippendale period belongs the small, upright, 
secretaire cabinet, No. 20. For sheer. minuteness and intricate 
perfection of workmanship I know of no parallel to this little piece. 
There are three very shallow drawers, one below the upper stage of 
the two open-latticed doors, one just above the secretaire, and the 
third in the stand. It is impossible to do justice to the miniature 
character of the carving in an illustration to the scale of the one here ; 
a magnifying glass is necessary to examine the actual piece properly. 
Quality of this kind is quite beyond the means of the average collector— 
in fact, even if the purse be adequate, such a piece, without extra- 
ordinary luck, is rarely met with at the present day. Price has no 














The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. The Table (22) Shown Open. 


relation at all when furniture of this excellence can be acquired. 
For this reason, and there may be others, its illustration in a book 


108 TEE LOLDA ORE DIOS E 


of this character is utterly indefensible. That is why, without any 
attempt at excuse, I have put it in. 

Many of the elaborate writing tables of the later eighteenth 
century, especially those which are joiner-designed, are notable 
additions to the history of English furniture. No. 21 has pull-out 
flaps at each end which extend the effective length of the top to nearly 
9 feet. There are eighteen drawers in this table, nine ompeachenies 
those in the frieze being made with side-overhang of the fronts to 
mask the opening joints, all covered with the Grecian key-pattern 
and carved patere. The locks are of Bramah’s make, with the usual 
projecting nozzles, but here made so small that they are contained 
in the centre of the middle rosettes on each drawer. Each pedestal 
is in two parts—that is, with separate plinth—behind the framing of 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (23) Mahogany Steward’s Table of the Adam 
Period, ¢. 1770. 


which is an ingenious arrangement of screwed feet designed to adapt 
the table, which is of formidable weight, to an uneven floor. 


DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 109 


An unusual form of secretaire-table is illustrated in No. 22, the 
operation of which can be seen quite clearly in the two views here. 
Tables of this kind appear to have been made for the use of estate 
stewards or bailiffs, to hold maps or plans, and with separate compart- 
ments, each with a lid, to hold money or notes, on quarter or rent days. 
I have seen several in the stewards’ rooms in large houses, and there 
is no reason to regard them as pieces banished from the more impor- 
tant apartments. No. 23 has no function, apparently, other than to 
contain estate plans; it is certainly not a convenient writing table, 
and the heavy double-hinged flaps have no meaning if they 
are not intended to cover up plans or large sheets when not in 
Actua! “use. 





The Development of the Scruteir or Bureau. The Table (23) Shown Open. 


The slope-fronted bureau declines in fashion towards the end of 
the eighteenth century, its place being taken by the secretaire or the 


Ge THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


tambourwriting table. ‘The desire,in both pieces, was to secure privacy 
for papers without the necessity of putting them away in drawers or 
cupboards. The well-known, so-called, American roll-top desk is a 


“ero ane sthesenneeindtnscen 


we 


eee ReNn a sheRta ei: tr 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (24) The Mahogany Tambour-Fronted Writing 
Table of the Hepplewhite Period, c. 1780. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


good example of the tambour. A number of narrow strips, some- 
times square in section, but more often moulded, are glued down on a 


PEPE EROPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 111 


piece of stout linen or canvas, to form a rolling shutter. The table 
is made with quadrant ends, as in No. 24, in the grooves of which 
the shutter runs, corresponding grooves being provided behind the 
pigeon-holes for it when the table is opened. An alternative method 
is shown in No. 25, where the tambour disappears under the two 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (25) Mahogany “ Pull-Over”? Tambour Table 
of 1780 Type with Rising, or “ Harlequin,” Nest of Pigeon-Holes. (C. H. F. Kinder- 
man, Esq.) 


drawers and when drawn up pulls right over the table. The box 
containing the pigeon-holes and small drawers is pressed down on a 


Ee THE OL DAVORED HOUSE 


spring, when the table is closed, and flies upwards when a catch is 
released. It is from this action of jumping up, that furniture of 

this kind gets its name of “ harlequin,’ by which it was known at 

the period when it was made. Good examples of these tambour 
tables are now somewhat rare, but, as some compensation for their ‘ 
scarcity, they are not unreasonably expensive, when found. They 

are very dainty and decorative pieces as a rule, and ideal for 
feminine use. 


4 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (26) The Enclosed Combination Type of Table, 
c.1790. (C.H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


One other type, which is more frequently found as a combination 
dressing and wash cabinet than as a writing table, is given in No. 26. 
Here the top opens from the middle as two boxes, which contain 





DEVELOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 113 


receptacles for stationery. The box at the back springs upwards, 
harlequin-fashion, as in No. 25. The cupboard below, with its 
shutter-front, suggests that this kind of table was made for the bed- 
room. 

Another essentially feminine type of writing table is the “ kidney ” 
form, as in No. 27. Original tables of this form are rare, but have 
been extensively copied. They are charming pieces for the drawing- 
room or boudoir. The well-known “ Carlton House” table appears 
to have been based on this model. 

Two further varieties of writing cabinet, Nos. 28 and 29, are 
illustrated in conclusion of this review. The first, the pull-out 
secretaire with hinged fall-front, is still fairly common, and some 
of these pieces, especially when of small size, are often exceedingly 
charming. ‘They possess the advantage of being less expensive than 


f 





tL 


The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (27) The “ Kidney”-Shaped Writing Table 
with Lifting Slope, c.1780. (Sir Leicester Harmsworth, Bart.) 


the bureau, probably for two reasons, (1) that they exist in greater 
numbers, and (2) that when closed they are not as decorative. The 


fall-front, being generally made to simulate two drawers, always 
I 8 


ite THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


makes the lower part appear disproportionately high, but as a secre- 
taire, in my judgment, should be left open (they become mere hiding- 





The Development of the Scruteir or Bureau. 
(28) The Pull-Out Secretaire Cabinet of c. 
1790 Type. 


places for lumber when 
kept closed), this drawback 
is not as serious as would 
be supposed. It is, never- 
theless, one of the objec- 
tions which are frequently 
taken to the secretaire type 
of cabinet. 

The second form, the 
cylinder - fronted writing 
cabinet, is now rare, and J 
have never seen one of 
eighteenth-century date 
without an upper part, 
whereas chests of drawers 
fitted with pull-out secre- 
taires are not uncommon. 
Fig. 29 is a good example 
of the cylinder form in 
a satinwood cabinet decor- 
ated with painted garlands 
and borders of flowers. 
Behind the cylinder is the 
familiar arrangement so 
small drawers and pigeon- 
holes. ‘The cylinder front 
has one annoying little habit 
of picking up papers and 
carrying them behind the 


pigeon: holes, when thrown back. I remember one instance where the 
presence of papers was only discovered when the cylinder refused to 
revolve, and, on taking out the back, the accumulation of years, which 
even included cheques, was discovered. As a slight compensation, 


fe PEOPMENT OF TYPES IN FURNITURE 115 


these cylinder bureaux may prove a treasure-trove to the purchaser, 
especially if among his hobbies is included the collecting of letters and 
other papers of the years long gone by. 





The Development of the Scrutoir or Bureau. (29) The Cylinder-Fronted Bookcase Cabinet 
of c.1790. (C.H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


CHAP GER Vi 
WOOD PANELLINGS FOR THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


105i ZE aré so accustomed, at the present day, to wain- 
Bete; scottings of wood, that it is difficult to imagine ‘the 
long and arduous process which was necessitated, 
in the Middle Ages, with the primitive wood-working 
methods then in vogue, before the oak of the park 
or the forest could be resolved into a covering for 
the walls of rooms in the houses of that period. The tree had to be 
felled, barked, sawn into planks with the aid only of the pit-saw, 
stacked and seasoned, and then constructed, in mortised-and-tenoned 
framing, with panels riven from the solid timber and dubbed smooth 
with the adze, before panellings were possible. ‘This was a task not 
to be undertaken lightly, and in the generality of houses, prior to the 
accession of the ‘udors—where considerations of defence were of 
primary importance, those of comfort only in secondary degree and 
in peaceful times or localities—it is not remarkable that such an 
expenditure of time and labour was rarely considered worth the while. 
Clerical houses and establishments, which aggrandised much of the 
skill and practically all of the culture of this time, preferred hangings 
of arras tapestry, for the covering of bare walls, to panellings of wood, 
and in churches and cathedrals—where tapestry was interdicted, for 
many reasons—the walls were broken up too much by windows, 
columns, and irregularities of surface to permit of panellings. 
Plantagenet dwellings ranged from the castle of stone, built to 
withstand attack by armed force, to the farmhouse of timber and 
plaster, for the yeoman class. In rich counties, such as Norfolk and 


Suffolk, the peasantry were also housed in cottages of oak and plaster, 
116 





WOOD PANELLINGS 17, 


often decorated with a wealth of carving, in verge-board, wall-plate, 
corner-post and window-mullion, or with modelled devices in the 
exterior plasterwork. This was by no means general, however; 
the poorer counties housed the tillers of the soil in rude hovels. These 
have nearly all disappeared long since, owing to their temporary 
character. Here and there, as in the rural districts of Kent, solitary 
survivals are to be found which may date from the early fifteenth 
century, but the circumstances which have caused them to persist 
are so exceptional that the working-class house of this period must be 
considered as almost non-existent at the present day. 

Stone, timber (generally oak), and plaster, were the English build- 
ing materials of the Middle Ages; brick, although known in Roman 
times, were exceptional prior to the days of the Tudors. In the 
castles erected for defence, in Norman and Plantagenet days, the walls 
of the rooms inside showed the rough stone of which the castle itselt 
was built. In the female apartments, hangings of tapestry or needle- 
work masked the bareness, but in the other quarters the rough- 
quarried stone was left exposed. ‘The times were too uncertain and 
troublous for any degree of what we now regard as comfort to be viewed 
other than as a sign of effeminacy. A great noble, such as Warwick 
the King-maker, would call on the looms of Flanders or the weavers 
of Italy to furnish his castle of Middleham or his London palace, but 
this would be the exception, even among the wealthy. The yeoman’s 
house showed the timber studding, with its plaster filling, both on 
the inside and out, perhaps relieved by crude wall-paintings, or some 
such attempt at decoration. Colchester Museum possesses several 
examples of these early wall-paintings, which seem to show that this 
form of decoration may have been general, especially as, with demo- 
lition, these paintings would be exceedingly liable to destruction, and 
few would survive. Covered with later distemper or paint, their 
presence would not be suspected, beneath many coats of whitewash, 
in the same way as panellings would be. Of the examples which 
exist, at Colchester and elsewhere, none are known which can be 
referred, with certainty, to the fifteenth century. True, they may 
have perpetuated a much older art, but for this theory there is no 


118 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


reliable evidence. One thing is certain, however: wainscottings 
of wood were practically unknown in Gothic times in England. It is 
not that the necessary skill to construct them was absent; there are 
ample evidences, in church woodwork and in the screens of the Great 
Halls which date from this period, to negative any such idea promptly; 
it was simply that the fashion had not arisen, or that the necessary 
time and trouble was not regarded as worth the while in the case of 
secular dwellings. 

We may regard wood panellings, in the houses of the laity, as an 
innovation of the Tudor period. The Great Hall screens, of which 
Gothic examples still 
exist (one “ina 
Victoria and Albert 
Museum, which may 
be regarded as typical 
of its time, is shown 
here on the next page), 
are apparent ‘excep= 
tions, but such screens, | 
although they may be 
classed with panellings, 
are not true wainscot- 
tings, the walls in the 
Great Halls for which 
they were made being 
left bare, or hung with 
tapestries, but never 
panelled. 

This archzological 
dissertation 1s necessary 
if one is to understand 





Oak Tongue-and-Groove Wainscotting Moulded with : 
Linen-Fold Pattern. Late Fifteenth Century. the genesis of many of 


the types of panellings 
which are illustrated in this chapter, and also the factors which caused 
each to evolve in its turn. There are three which are essentially early 


WOOCDsPANELLINGS 119 





Fragment of a Great Hall Screen Reconstructed. At the Top of each Panel 1s Late Fifteenth 
Century Tracery; below 1s a Shield and Three Varieties of the Linen-Fold Device. 


Tudor in inception, and at the same time are almost coeval. These 
are: (1) The “linen-fold”*; (2) the parchemin or vine pattern; and 


* ‘The linen-fold, if we regard as such the earliest type, which has no resemblance 
to the folding of linen, may date as early as the mid-fifteenth century. 


120 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


(3) the Renaissance carved panel, where the design generally springs from 
a central cartouche. ‘The tomb of Henry VII. in Westminster Abbey 
may be regarded as, perhaps, the earliest exposition of this Italian style 
in England. ‘The work of Pietro Torrigiano—or Peter Torrisany, as he 
was known in this country at the time—an Italian soldier of fortune, 
this tomb marks the period when the first tide of the Renaissance swept 
over England, gradually submerging all the Gothic traditions which had 
persisted, as the national style, for nearly four hundred years. That 





Oak ,Linen-Fold Panelling, showing the Construction. The Panels are Cut with a Rebate 
at Top and Bottom and Overhang the Rails. Late Fifteenth Century. 


Torrigiano brought with him to England many of his countrymen 
is undoubted,* but it is questionable whether the new manner was not 


* See the third chapter of the “‘ Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini ” (Roscoe’s translation) 
for a contemporary account of Torrigiano, and by a renowned craftsman. 


WOOD PANELLINGS 121 


introduced, almost simul- 
taneously, into Sussex and 
Devonshire by Frenchmen 
from Languedoc or Tou- 
raine. ‘The royal patronage 
of the new style, and for a 
work as important as the 
Westminster Abbey tomb, 
must have had an enormous 
influence on its rise in favour 
and almost instantaneous 
adoption as the national style 
of England. 

I am inclined to regard 
the linen-fold as an English 
device entirely, and one 
which originates in a 
perfectly logical manner. It 


may be interesting to trace 


€ » 


Linen-Fold Panelling. Elaborated Type. 





Linen-Fold Panelling. Simple Type. 





its development briefly. Several 
ingenious theories have been 
advanced as to the inspiration of 
the motive itself. By some it is 
thought to be copied from the 
curling of a parchment leaf, such 
as was used to glue on the backs of 
oak panels intended for painting 
or gesso decoration. There is no 
doubt that parchment, from its 
greasy nature, would not adhere 
readily or well, and would 
be likely to curl up at the 
edges, but there: are- three 


grave objections to this theory, 


r22 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


ingenious as it may be. In the first place no linen-fold panel 
copies parchment in the way it would curl if imperfectly glued to a 
panel; secondly, it is only the later development of the device which 
bears any resemblance to the folding of linen, proving that it did not 
originate in this way; and thirdly, there would be no reason to copy 





The French Type of Linen-Fold with Renaissance Panels above and Semi-Balusters applied 


to the Muntins. The Type which is Found in Devon and Somerset. Early Sixteenth 
Century. 


a decorative motive from a source as crude as this when the carvers had 
all the wealth of the Gothic to draw upon, and from which source 


WOOD PANELLINGS Ee 


something new could, and would, have been evolved had decorative 
novelty been the sole aim. It is more logical to look for a definite and 
useful reason for the origin and the evolution of the linen-fold panel, 
and the theory stated here has, at all events, a practical basis. 

The earliest panels which are known to us are of riven oak, dubbed 
smooth with the adze on the exposed face, and left rough from the 
riving-iron or “‘ thrower” behind. It would be discovered, especially 
when the timber was not thoroughly seasoned, that panels fashioned 
in this manner would have a marked tendency to warp and split. 
Whether by accident or design, it was found that a panel left with a 
middle rib or ridge, formed by chamfering away the wood from a 
central vertical line, would be much less likely to twist, owing to the 
stiffening properties which this rib would give. If the panel were 
intended to be housed in a framing-groove, this chamfering away 











Oak Linen-Fold Panelling with Lay-Panels above Carved with Renaissance Ornament. 
Mid-Sixteenth Century. 


from a central rib would also be a quicker method than smoothing 
all over with the adze, and would, therefore, be readily adopted. The 


124 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


next development would be to turn this rib to the front and to make a 
decorative feature of it. There are several church doors in Suffolk 
(Boxford is an example) 
where the panels are 
tall and narrow, and 
ridged in this way, with- 
out cross-rails, housed 
into the framings at 
the top, bottom) sand 
sides only. 

A panel with a single 
central rib, or with 
several, as the desire 
for decoration grows 
(or, in other words, 
one which is vertically 
moulded), cannot be 
inserted into grooves in 





its framing, especially 
at the top and bottom, 
without cutting the 
ribbing away either by 
a rebate or a chamfer, 
in order to. former 
tongue. Hven) “this 
would only make a 
good joint, into which 
damp could not enter, 
if the inside edges of 
the framing rails were 





























Linen-Fold Panelling iu the Vicars Hall, Exeter. The psf ah Pe 
Folding of Soft Linen 1s Imitated Here. Late S1x- eit without moutding 


teenth Century. or bevel, so that the 
rebated profile of the 

vertical moulding could abut squarely. To mould, or even to 
chamfer the inside edges of the rails, would mean a bad joint where 


WOOD PANELLINGS 1S 


the top and bottom of the vertical moulding of the panel would 
overhang. In the two panels shown here on page 120, it will be 
noticed that the linen-fold does overhang at the bottom in this 
way. ‘To overcome this defect, the obvious device would be to make a 
long chamfer on the panel, bringing it to a “ feather-edge,”’ but this 
would mutilate the pattern. The considered method of surmounting 
the difficulty would be to do just what the old craftsmen did, carve 





Two Versions of the Parchemin or Vine Panel. An Alternative Method to the Linen-Fold 
of Using the Panel-Rib as an Ornamental Device. 


the linen-fold moulding in a series of voluted patterns, at top and 
bottom, cutting away to the ground so as to form a proper tongue 


126 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


which would make a workman-like joint in the groove. These devices 
soon began to multiply, dictated, in part, by the section of the vertical 
moulding itself, but more often by the individual whim of the carver. 
Of these caprices, several examples are given in this chapter. It is 
worthy of note that only at a late stage does this moulded panel begin 
to resemble the folding of starched linen. The name of “ linen- 














Early Sixteenth-Century Renaissance Panelling inspired from I'rench Sources, 1520. 
(Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


fold,” therefore, could not have been original. That it, or some 
other name with a similar meaning, originates at an early period is 


WOOD PANELLINGS 


127 


indicated by many examples, such as the wainscotting in the Vicars’ 
Hall at Exeter (shown on page 124); there in thes eries of panels the 
folding of soft linen or cloth is deliberately imitated. This is late 
sixteenth-century work,* and shows, therefore, the linen-fold pattern 
at an advanced stage in its development. 

The earliest linen-fold, as applied to the decoration of the cover- 


ing woodwork of interior walls, appears to have originated as a true 


wainscotting, something like what 
we know, at the present day, as 
match-boarding. Examples are 
rare, as the fashion must have 
been very exceptional. One is 
shown here on page 118 which still 
exists at Lavenham in Suffolk. 
The vertical strips of wood are 
tongued and grooved together, 
just in the same way as match- 
boarding is, and the vertical 
moulding serves to hide the joints 
between the sections. The board- 
Meeismiailea to the wall, and 
kept from buckling by a rebated 
capping-rail at the top only. At 
the bottom is neither skirting nor 
batten. I have seen fragments of 
what may be earlier wainscot- 
“np than this®in some of the 
Kentish yeomen’s houses; there the 
method is even more primitive. 
A number of narrow boards are 
nailed to the wall without any 
tongue-and-groove joint, each 





Oak Panelling of Interlaced Arcaded Pat- 


tern. Cheshire and Derbyshire Type. 
Early Seventeenth Century. 


piece overlapping the one next to it, in the manner which the 


shipwright knows as “‘clinker-building.”’ 


Victoria and 


In the 


* ‘The arcaded superstructure is nearly a century later then the linen-fold panels below. 


128 





Wisk tie Bicone 


Oak Panelling with Carved Frieze 
Pilasters. 
W est, c. 1600. 


and 


The Rich Type of the South- 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Albert Museum is an exterior 
door, from a house at Clare in 
Suffolk, which is constructed 
in this way, with overlapping 
boarding clout-nailed to a stout 
framing behind. 

While it would be hazardous, 
in the absence of any direct 
evidence which decorative 
detail, for might 
afford, to assign an exact date 
to any this 
“clinker”? or lapped wains- 
cotting, there is ne jideuins 
that it is early in type, and 
was, in all - probability, the 
first primitive method adopted 
in England of covering a bare 
with wooden 


example, 


examples of 


interior wall 
wainscotting. 

The fragment of the Great 
Hall screen shown here on 
page 11g is constructed in the 
same way as the wall panelling 
of the next century, allowance 
being made for the fact that 
it is double-sided and for the 
heavy scantling of the timbers 
which this has entailed. In 
spite of the somewhat bar- 
barous reconstruction which 
has done so much to ruin its 
original character, “here are 
three examples of the linen- 
fold, prior to the sixteenth 


WOOD PANELLINGS 129 


century, which show the device in anything but an embryonic 
form. Some consideration must be paid to the fact that this is 
a Devonshire screen from a countv which was almost supreme, 





Oak Panelling of Kentish Type. Paint Stripped from Two Panels only. Early 
Seventeenth Century. 


at this period, for its fine woodwork. Here are the three phases 
of the linen-fold pattern on the one panel, from the simple 
t o 


I 30 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


single-rib up to the more ornate version which carries us well 
into the sixteenth century. The flat character of the folding in- 
dicates an early date even were the Gothic tracery at the panel-head 
not present. On page 120 is a portion of actual panelling which is 
still prior to the sixteenth century, but this is an isolated fragment 
and was never a true wainscotting. ‘The crude overhang on the 
lower rail is never found after about 1530, when the fashion began to 
arise of constructing wall-panellings. The sixteenth-century linen- 
fold, both in simple and ornate kinds, is illustrated on page 121, which 
shows how the ground is cut away to permit of the insertion of the 
panel in its groove without overhang at the top and bottom. 

Possibly one of the earliest types of wall-panelling (which at the 
same time is, perhaps, the most ornate) is where the so-called linen- 
fold is combined with the Italian Renaissance ornament introduced 
by Torrigiano and his school, such as in the fragment illustrated here 
on page 122. ‘This may date from the first quarter of the sixteenth 
century, and had the panelling in the recently opened Cardinals 
“‘ Lodgynges”? at Hampton Court been of Wolsey’s time, or even 
original to the Palace itself, it would, doubtless, have been of a pattern 
similar to the example shown here. Unfortunately for guide-book 
accuracy, some authorities are too prone to accept woodwork dis- 
covered behind paint or wall-paper, which has been buried, demon- 
strably, for a generation or two, as original to the place where it is found. 
It would have been of the greatest interest to have discovered, in 
Wolsey’s old Palace, woodwork or furniture of his time, but this 
panelling is later even than Henry VIII., and is composed of fragments 
brought from elsewhere (probably from Oxfordshire) fitted up with 
little or no regard to the shapes of rooms themselves. 

Before leaving this early example, it may be pointed out that the 
device of the lower panels bears little or no resemblance to the folding 
of linen or parchment. It represents the highest development of 
its period, and is the work of a carver skilled in his craft. ‘The semi- 
octagonal balusters, applied to the vertical muntins, is French rather 
than Italian in inspiration. ‘This fragment bears a strong similarity 
in character to much of the original woodwork still to be found in some 


WOOD PANELLINGS 131 











Oak Panelling from the Palace at Bromley-by-Bow. The Device of Alternating Broad and 
Narrow and Tall and Short Panels is Usually Found in Home County Work. Date 
1608, 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 











Early 


ly, 


Here the Upright and Lay 
ter On 


ing. 


Bow Panelli 


-by 
quare Panels are on Every Fourth T 


ion of the Bromley 


Panels are Doubled and the Small § 


Seventeenth Century. 


The East Anglian Vers 


WOOD PANELLINGS 133 


of the old houses in the ancient town of Rye, and probably originates 
from this quarter. 








The Welsh-Bordering-County Type of Oak Panelling with Framings and Mouldings of 
Heavy Section. Early Seventeenth Century. 


A closer approximation to the folding or creasing of stiff parchment 
or starched linen is to be seen in the next illustration on page 123, 


134 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


where the upper panels have also the Renaissance ornament, but are 
placed lengthwise, running across two of the vertical panels below. 
This is the East Anglian type, somewhat coarse, yet with a peculiar 
vigour of handling which is unmistakable. The last phase of the 
linen-fold is to be found at Exeter (page 124) and in the first two of 
the Hampton Court rooms (“My Lorde Cardinall’s Lodgynges ”) 
entering from the picture gallery. Here the folding of soft linen 
is simulated with considerable fidelity. While generically Tudor, this 
type may be more properly, and closely, described as early Elizabethan. 

Whether the decorative possibilities of the linen-fold were quickly 
exhausted, or possibly as an alternative method of using this central 
stiffening-rib, other patterns were devised shortly afterwards which 
developed nearly on parallel lines. ‘The method adopted was to open 
out the central ridge so as to form, in combination with other panels, 
a number of ogival devices in diapered patterns. 

This is the so-called “ parchemin”’ or “ vine” panel, which, 
although almost contemporary, 1s distinctly rarer than the linen-fold. 
At Boughton Malherbe, near Maidstone, is a room completely wain- 
scotted with these “ vine” panels, known as such by reason of the 
grape and vine-leaf being frequently introduced as a subsidiary 
decoration in the spaces left by the radiating ogival ribs. Two 
examples are shown on page 125 which indicate the type. There is a 
rare variation of the pattern, where the ogival ribs interlace, but this 
is highly exceptional. 

The Renaissance Italian ornament appears to have permeated 
English woodwork very thoroughly, especially in the counties south 
of the Humber. Whether this was due, directly, to the influence 
of Torrigiano, or whether he brought with him a considerable 
number of his countrymen, Florentines who had studied with 
Michelangelo, and settled in various parts of the southern counties of 
England, it is impossible to determine. Certainly in the Wolsey 
ceilings at Hampton Court, and in wood- and stonework at Christ- 
church Priory, Ely, and elsewhere, are evidences not merely of a par- 
ticular style, but also of a definite hand. The Italian Renaissance 
ornament had strongly influenced the artistic development of the 


WOODSPANEELINGS li Sis 


Netherlands and the French cities bordering on the Loire, long before 
England was affected in any way. The new manner appears in this 


¥ 


i 
i 
if 





East Anglian Oak Panelling Types. Early Seventeenth Century. 


Each Panel Moulding here 1s completely The Panels here are “ Fielded” without 
Mitred and Applied, with Slight Chamfers. The Edges of the Panels 
Projection. are Moulded. 


country not from one source merely—from the fountain-head, Italy, 
—but from three, if not four, and the difference in the transmutation 
of the Renaissance ornament through the channels of France and the 
Low Countries is very noticeable. 

Perhaps the best example of the pure Italian Renaissance orna- 
ment in oak panelling of the sixteenth century, certainly the most 
complete of its kind, is to be found in the Waltham Room now in 


136 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


the Victoria and Albert Museum. Perhaps by reason of its unique 
character this wainscotting has been extensively illustrated. One 
section is given on page 126 as a record of panelling of the first half 
of the sixteenth century to complete this series. 


The seventeenth-century panelling types are too numerous for 





The “ Inner Frame” or Sirap Panel in Two Titers. 
Hereford and Shropshire Type. This Panelling 
15 Exceptional in being made of Walnut. Early 
Seventeenth Century. 


anything beyond the briefest 
notice here. One page 127 
is the interlaced pattern of 
Cheshire and Derbyshire. 
That on page 128 shows the 
rich woodwork of the south- 
western counties, Somerset 
and Devon, where the 
Italian manner is super- 
imposed on that of France. 
On page 129 is the Kentish 
wainscotting, somewhat 
crude in type, with moulded 
vertical muntins butt- 
jointed into cross - rails 
scratch-beaded at the top 
and stop-chamfered at the 
bottom. That trometie 
old palace at Bromley-by- 
Bow, with its arrangement 
of framing on a large panel 
with smaller ones (page 131) 
and another version from 
Billesley Manor (page 132), 
show the Home County and 
East Anglian types. Shrop- 
shire, Cheshire, and Here- 
fordshire appear to have 


preferred the heavy framing and panel mouldings as on page 133, and on 
page 135 two further types of East Anglian framed panelling are given. 


WOOD PANELLINGS 137 


A method of framing one panel within four others in a kind of 
key-pattern—what is known, technically, as inner-frame panelling— 
comes into vogue shortly after about 
1620, but only begins to be general 
after about 1660. On page 136 is 
a Herefordshire example, excep- 
tional in being of walnut instead 
of the usual oak, and on this page is 
the elaborated version of the same 
fashion. 

Thus far, all the panellings 
shown here have one characteristic 
in common—the area of the panels 
is small. Jointing, which involved 
the use of glue or other adhesive, 
was not encouraged by the Tudor 
or Stuart joiner, and the cutting of 
oak, by the method known as 
quartering, meant that no single 
piece could be of greater width 
than about. one-third of the 
diameter of the log, allowing for 
the a DUE of the heart-wood “ Inner-Frame” Panelling of Elaborated 
and the squaring up of the trunk Type. Early Seventeenth Century. 
after removing the bark. After 
about 1670 the large panel came into fashion, probably at the 
dictates of architects, who, knowing little of the properties and 
limitations of English oak, had no regard for the scruples of 
joiners trained in a careful and traditional school. On page 138 is the 
commencement of the large-panel fashion, and in the Clifford’s Inn 
Room we have the mode at its zenith—that is, as far as oak panelling 
is concerned. With the eighteenth century we find wainscotting of 
painted deal taking the place of the earlier oak, perhaps not to the 
advantage of English craftsmanship, as this painting permitted, at a 
later date, of the use of composition enrichments disguised as carving. 





138 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Deal had been known and used for panellings early in the Stuart 
period, and although the red deal of that date was of beautiful quality, 





Heavy-Frame Panelling with Bolection Mouldings and “‘ Fielded” Panels with Chamfered 
Borders. Essex Type of c. 1670-80. 


there can be no question as to its inferiority to oak. Its comparative 
rarity, however, is shown by the fact that these deal-panelled rooms 


WOOD PANELLINGS 139 


were the more highly prized, being repeatedly mentioned in the 
inventories of the period, whereas wainscottings of oak are rarely 
referred to. ‘They copied, in every instance, the small-panel fashion 
of their time, and, with later “ japanning”’ or graining, have often 
masqueraded as oak. At Parnham Park, in Dorsetshire, was—possibly 
still is—a good example of this deal panelling, in what was known as 
the King’s Room. 

While these panellings of fine red deal were intended, in the 
original instance, to be painted, a very charming fashion has arisen, 





The Introduction of the Large Oak Panel. The Clifford’s Inn Room now in the Victoria 
and Albert Museum, Date about 1686. 


during recent years, of stripping the old paint and leaving them in 
the natural wood. Numberless coats of oil and lead colour, together 


THESOLD-VORELDEHOUS & 








. 


s Inn Room 


Detail of Door and Panelling from the Clifford’ 


WOOD PANELLINGS 141 


with the exclusion of light, has toned the wood to the shade of faded 
pencil cedar. The rooms on exhibition in the Victoria and Albert 
Museum have all had the paint removed in this way, and their 
decorative value enhanced enormously. ‘There is an honest character 
in the bare wood—especially where it is of fine quality, as these old 
panels nearly always were—which painting disguised, without any 
compensating advantage. Carving being the rule at this period, and 
composition enrichments an abomination which, to their discredit, 
was an introduction of the brothers Adam in the later years of the 
eighteenth century, this removal of the paint exposes any imitation 
or defect ruthlessly. A few words may be advisable here on the 
subject of this stripping of paint. When the room is in fragments— 





Red Deal Panelling of the Early Eighteenth Century. The Cornice 1s of Wood. and Surbase 
and Skirting of Large Projection. The Corner Beads are Carved; c. 1710. 


that is, before the panels are fixed—it is possible to immerse the pieces 
in a bath of “ pickle” (the generic name for all paint-removers), 


142 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Re eae ret 


es 


P SLU 














Peseareesesecnes 


[ 


“iy 





The Pilastered Mantelpiece of c. 1730-40. The Marble Mantel and Steel Grate are Later. 
(Messrs. Gill and Reigate.) 


WOOD PANELLINGS 143 


and to let time, and the stripper, do its work. ‘This is inexpensive 
paint-removing. ‘To attempt to do the same with the woodwork 
in situ (especially if paint, often a hundred years old, and in numerous 
coats, 1s to be removed from quirks and interstices of carving without 
the-use of sharp tools which ruin the character of the work) is an 
exceedingly costly process. It is considerably cheaper to dismantle 
a fixed room, to take the panels and framings apart, even if subsequent 
re-making and re-fixing has to be faced, than to attempt to “ pickle” 
it in position, especially if the room be heavily carved. 

That this Georgian deal panelling was intended for painting, is 
proved by the fact that no attempt was ever made to cut out the 
knots, which have a disfiguring effect when the woodwork is stripped 
and left in its natural state. ‘There are two methods of dealing with 








A Fine Example of Red, Deal Panelling of c. 1740. The Dado is not Panelled. All 
Mouldings are Carved. 


these. The first is to cut them out and to patch with other 
pieces of the same wood; the second is to grain them over. The 


144 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


latter is to be preferred, although such work demands a capable, and, 
therefore, a highly paid decorator. Patching is never satisfactory, 
as it is impossible to disguise the inlaid pieces, and they have always 
a tendency to fall out with the slightest shrinkage. 

The proper treatment for these stripped deal rooms is a slight 
polishing with beeswax and turpentine, but it is advisable to stain 
them first to a cinnamon shade. ‘This can be done with coffee, but 
one of the wood stains, such as Stephens make, is to be preferred, as 
the latter do not bleach so easily if exposed to a strong light. A good 
coating of size (that made by boiling down parchment cuttings is to 
be recommended in -preference to the crude animal size used by 
painters) should be applied before waxing, followed by a rubbing down 
with glass paper or soft pumice stone. 

If the room possess no picture rail, and it is desired to hang 
pictures in the panels (they are an invaluable adjunct), the top 
section of the panel moulding, if it be of the projecting or “ bolection ”’ 
type, can be grooved to hold the usual brass picture hooks. Where 
the moulding is a sunk ovolo, this is not possible, and the only 
method is to use a channelled rosette, preferably with a three-pin 
fixing. It is remarkable to note the extreme weight which a flat 
rosette will carry if secured by three pins, triangular fashion, as com- 
pared with the single-pin fixing of a picture hook. The pins need 
only be of the lightest type, such as will not damage the woodwork 
or leave unsightly holes if removed at any time. 

Of the remaining illustrations to this chapter, on page 145 is the 
Morning Room at Dudley House, Park Lane, of stripped deal, beauti- 
fulin detail, shade, and texture. On page 146 is shown a typical triple 
window, with arch-headed centre, from No. 7, Soho Square. Known 
as Venetian windows at the time, the paintings of Hogarth have 
familiarised us with the type. They are nearly always fine both in 
proportion and detail. 

Two characteristic six-panelled doors are given on pages 148 and 
149. Both are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they can be 
examined and studied at leisure. To those who are fortunate enough 
to possess original examples in old houses, the advice given in 


WOOD PANELLINGS 145 


Chapter III., to substitute fine, bold box-locks of brass for the usual, 
but later, mortise lock, may be reiterated here. A door lock is a good 
honest thing, with a definite function to perform. Why hide it? 
From the foregoing, it will be seen that, with panellings for the 
Old-World House, we are limited to two woods, oak or red deal. 
If the work is to be painted, pine can be substituted for the latter. 
Walnut or mahogany was never used, as far as I am aware, at any 
period, for wainscotting, although procurable in wide boards. Ex- 
ception may be made, in favour of walnut, in the instance of rare 
examples, such as the Banqueting Chamber at Rotherwas in Here- 
ford (see page 136), and I have seen other panellings where walnut 





Sct 


The Morning Room, Dudley House, Park Lane, W. Stripped Red Deal Panelling and 
Pilastered Mantel, c.1730. (Capt. The Hon. Sir Fohn H. Ward, K.C.V.O.) 


has been substituted for oak, but, apart from rarity, the wood has 


little to recommend it. Walnut is neither as durable a timber as oak 
I Io 


146 THE OLD WORLDIHOUSE 


nor as decorative. Oak cut “‘ on the quarter ””—that is, with each board 
sawn at an acute angle with the medullary ray *—exhibits the fine 








No. 7, Soho Square. A “Venetian” Window with Fluted Pilasters and Carved Capitals. 
The Large Projection of Surbase and Skirting should be Noted; c.1710-20. (Messrs. 
Gill and Reigate.) 


“splash” figure which many of the examples illustrated in this 
chapter show. Highly figured walnut is apt to look garish when used 
for large surfaces. Why mahogany was not used for panellings is a 
mystery. It is a reliable wood, perhaps the most satisfactory of all 
timbers in many respects, and was procurable in wide boards, free 
from knots, shakes, or sap. Yet Georgian wainscottings of mahogany, 
apparently, do not exist, and as the wood did not come into general 


* The reader is referred to ‘‘ Early English Furniture and Woodwork,” vol. i., 
chap. lii., where the art of quartering oak is described and illustrated. ; 


WOOD PANELLINGS 147 


ot FOS NOS 
WH 





| 
| 


| 
i 
1 
| 





Overmantel and Panelling of Red Deal. On Either Side can be seen Portions of the China 
Niches; c.1730. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


148 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


ie Whe ‘ ine ae. toe 
e ben § bt 


PORCESE UCAS NOE ICRC NOI C108 LC EU ING re UCL Ue UTE hcl 


Wy 





Ae Ts | 
OTS NAVY, 





Red Deal Panelling and Elaborate Door Head. School of Fames Gibbs, c.1730. (Victoria 
and Albert Museum.) oo 


WOOD PANELLINGS 149 


eT 


| 
A pbastiaa 
a 


Nyt 





Characteristic Six-Panelled Door of Red Deal. All Mouldings are Carved; c. 1740-50. 
(Victoria and Albert Museum ) 


150 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


use, for furniture, prior to about 1725, any panellings, if made at all, 
would be found between about 1730 and 1780, yet they appear to be 
utterly unknown. There may be two sufficient reasons for this. In 
the first place, mahogany was an expensive wood at the period when 
it became fashionable (it was actually introduced into this country 
and was used, sparingly, nearly a century before 1725); and secondly, 
the early timber was hard and sombre, almost free from figure, and 
therefore unsuitable for wall-panellings. I have known of instances 
where aromatic cedar was used for this purpose, but these are highly 
exceptional. At the present day there is a well-founded prejudice 
against the use of mahogany; it has been adopted for the fitting of 
public - houses and restaurants, stained to a vicious red with bi- 
chromate of potash, and “ French ” polished to such a degree that a 
room panelled in this way (I have known of several) forthwith takes 
on the appearance of a saloon-bar. Left without staining, merely 
oiled and waxed, mahogany can be a decorative wood, especially if 
the figure be restrained. It is difficult, therefore, to understand why 
it is not satisfactory for panellings, yet there is no doubt that it is 
rarely used. I can imagine the small-panel type of Jacobean wood- 
work looking very well if copied in waxed mahogany. ‘The greatest 
disadvantage which mahogany possesses, to many, is not inherent to 
the wood itself. I refer to the attentions of the so-called ‘‘ French ” 
polisher, who will produce the horrible red colour and sticky shine 
found on so many of the shop-fronts of a few years ago. Shellac 
polishing, at its best, is far from an adornment, but it demands 
both time and labour if it is to be properly done. At its worst, 
as it usually is, it should be included in the calendar as a criminal 
offence. 

However unconventional one may be, we are all slaves to fashion, 
in a greater degree than many even suspect. If decorative work of 
any kind is to be done in the house, there is always the idea, expressed 
or implied, that the money spent shall add to the value of the house 
itself, not only decoratively, but in pounds, shillings, and pence as well. 
Nor is this an unmixed evil. The following of current fashions may 
lead to the stereotyped, in unskilful hands, but the artist will still 


WOOD PANELLINGS EG 


evolve something notable, while apparently fettered by tradition. 
It is he who throws all tradition overboard, and launches on new and 
uncharted seas, who is doomed to shipwreck and disaster from the 
outset. Decoration is akin, in this, to all other arts; absolute origin- 
ality is impossible, nor is such novelty to be desired. We are children 
of the ages, with the inheritance of thousands of years. We can add 
our brick or stone to the temple of the arts, which is always in the 
building, and it is to our credit if such be well and truly laid. But— 
we can no more erect a temple of our own, from foundation to coping, 
than we can live again our racial life from protoplasm to primates. 


CHAPTER VII 
PRE-REFORMATION GOTHIC FURNITURE 





“@ N apology may be necessary for opening this chapter 
¢ with a few dates or, perhaps, for inserting it in this 
book at all. With furniture of pre-Reformation 
period we can have here no practical concern, nor 
has the collector, as arule, for the good and sufficient 
reason that hardly any exists. To acquire a good 
knowledge of English furniture, however, there is no 
better Pelmanic method than the evolutionary one. Hewhocan look, 
with amoment’s effort of the will, down the vista of the centuries, and 
trace development, in imagination and in memory, of things seen and 


studied, from type to type, is already well equipped for the road which 





Oak Chest wrth Front Unframed, Clamped at Ends only. Carving Crude, but Characteristic 
of the Late Fourteenth Century in England. (Dersingham Church.) 


152 


PRE-REFORMATION GOTHIC FURNITURE 153 


leads to really expert knowledge. It isnot enough to have a mere know- 
ledge of dates of styles (although these are by no means unimportant 
or to be despised); one must know, almost at a glance, the materials, 
construction, and the possibilities and limitations of craftsmen of the 
various periods, whether such limitations be the result of imperfect 
methods, want of knowledge, or of a decadent art from which the 
former glories have departed. To the student who studies for the 
interest of the thing itself, as compared with that type of collector 
(it is assumed that the collector zs a student, which is not always the 
case) who sees only rarity or value expressed in pounds, shillings, and 
pence or, perhaps, in dollars, there is no subject more engrossing 
than that of English furniture. Here is craftsmanship, frequently 
of the highest order, allied with fine artistic sense of creation, exercised 
on objects of everyday life, on the things with which we surround our 
waking and even our sleeping hours, which make our existence pleasur- 
able or unbearable on our little march from cradle to grave. There 
is an intimacy, therefore, with old furniture which very few other 
** collectable” objects possess. ‘This portrait was painted as a per- 
sonal thing, to perpetuate human vanity or frailty beyond its 
allotted mortal span; but on this chair, and at that table, have sat 








Chest-Front Carved from the Solid Slab. The Chest Itself is of Later Date. English, Late 
Fifteenth Century. 


154 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


generations of men, women, and children. Schemes have been 
thought out, hopes and fears expressed, and possibly the wheel of life 
has spun from affluence to indigence in this panelled room. Deeds 
of light or darkness, romances of love, or tragedies of hate, have been 
enacted within these walls, which, if popularly credited with ears, 
have never been accused of possessing tongues. 

I know of two things only which can rival old furniture or wood- 
work in intimacy of character, namely, old gardens and old books, 
and the first cannot be “ collected,” while the rarity value of the 
latter has, too frequently, buried the personal note under a mountain 
of money.* 

After this digression, we may revert again to our dates, and see if 
we can bottle up a couple of centuries or more in a line or two. I 





Oak Chest with Constructed Front—i.e., Framed Up—with Applied Crocketing and But- 
tresses. The Bottom Rail is Missing Here. The Last Phase of the Gothic Prior to the 
Reformation. 


like to commence with Richard II., 1377-1400, as it was in the later 
years of his reign that Master Hugh Herland was commissioned to 
* It is recorded that the late Mr. Locker-Lampson sent a rare book to the binders, 


and complained, afterwards, that the bound book “ gaped.” ‘ Why,” said the binder 
indignantly, ‘you have been reading it!” 


PRE-REFORMATION GOTHIC FURNITURE 155 


begin the gigantic oak roof to Rufus’s Westminster Hall, perhaps the 
finest triumph of English carpentry, and one which has persisted to 
our day, save and excepting the attention necessary, at various times, 
during the nineteenth century and the elaborate steel coring of the 
old timbers, just finished by the Office of Works after eleven years of 
labour. Even here the King’s carpenter, who built for a thousand 
or more years beyond his own span of life, could not have foreseen 
that a tiny grub, barely one-quarter of an inch in length (Xestobium 
tessellatum, to give him his full style and dignity), multiplied in 
millions, would burrow into his 
gigantic trusses, eat away collars, 
principals, rafters, tie beams, hammer 
beams and posts, powder his Sussex 
oak despite the enormous size of his 
scantlings, and bring his mighty roof 
to the verge of crashing down on to 
the stone pavement, ninety feet below 
his ridge. 

Kings lose much of their dignity 
when used as milestones along the 
road of development of any art or 
craft. A handful of foreigners land- 
ing on the shores of England, bring- 
ing with them their methods and 
appliances, such as the Huguenots 
brought, in loom and shuttle, after the 
revocation of the Edict of Nantes and 





the massacre of St. Bartholomew, may © — 


have—and often did have—a greater A Fifteenth-Century Secular Chair. 
: 8 : The Fine Gothic Tradition 1s 
effect on the evolution of English pope dep. Gee. eee ON 


handicrafts than half a dozen Distinct from the Church Stall or 
Bishop’s Throne, is Exceedingly 


monarchs ascending or descending ep ae ae 


the throne of England. We have 
little concern, therefore, with the fourth Henry, 1400-13, the fifth, 
1413-22, or the sixth, 1422-61, although after Warwick the King- 


156 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


maker made his last stand on Barnet Field, on behalf of the monk- 
king against the Yorkist Edward, on that fateful Easter Day of 1471, 




















Gothic Table ; Post-Reformation. The Archaic Character might Suggest a Much Earlier 
Date, but this 1s Depraved Gothic. 


began an era which has been described as the Golden Age of English 
woodwork. We shall see, in a few lines, how long this age persisted 
and the factors which brought it to a close. 

Edward IV. reigns from 1461 to 1483; his son, king of a minute, 
is succeeded by his uncle, Crookback, in the same year of 1483, and 
with Bosworth Field the Plantagenets fall and the House of Tudor 
arises in 1485. Richmond’s son, burly Harry, the self- and much- 
widowed, begins his reign in 1509, and at last we reach a king whose 
deeds really do matter in tracing the development of furniture and 
woodwork. ‘To say that Henry’s influence was bad is to state the 
obvious; there are only bad or passive kings as far as a nation’s handi- 
crafts are concerned. 

I suppose no two acts of oppression had such a marked effect on 
English furniture and woodwork as the destruction of the monasteries 
and the debasing of the currency, two royal methods of “ raising the 


PRE-REFORMATION GOTHIC FURNITURE 157 


wind” in order to replenish a bottomless exchequer. The results of the 
first were immediate and pronounced, those of the second none the 














Dole Cupboard or Hutch. Secular Gothic after the Dissolution. 


less marked, although, perhaps, less obvious to the superficial observer. 
From abbey and monastery the lay brethren were driven forth “ with 
forty shillings and a gown per man,” and with them went all the lore, 
skill in craftsmanship, and cunning of eye and hand which had made 
the fifteenth century the Golden Age. Thereafter, for many years, 
the orfévres, lattiners, luminers, huchiers, and carvers of wood, marble, 
or stone, no longer fostered in the shadow of mighty abbeys, and 
forbidden to ply their trades elsewhere (for he who roamed from his 
village or town without sanction could be—and was—summarily 
hanged to a tree as a rogue and a masterless man), lurked as outlaws 
in forest or thicket, and English craftsmanship languished and almost 
became extinct, and never approached its former glory from that 
fateful year of 1536 up to the present day. 

Handicrafts could not die, however, and after some years a new 
race of craftsmen arose, with the former fine traditions only dimly 


158 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


remembered (for the persecution which drove the monks forth was 
accompanied by an insensate destruction which broke down their 
monuments in marble, stone, or wood), and the result was a crude 
travesty of the Gothic which, by reason of its barbarity, was long 
accepted as the prototype of the earlier, and infinitely finer, work. 

Of this pre-Reformation woodwork some still remains in tiny 
churches, in chancel and rood-screen, pulpit, pew or bench, although 
nearly always sadly mutilated, or, what is worse, ignorantly restored. 
Of furniture of the same period very little exists, and that little can 
rarely be acquired by the collector, other than at fabulous prices. Of 
the pre-Reformation furniture, up to the dawn of the Renaissance 
in England, I have shown one or two examples, more for their educa- 
tional value, or as curiosities, than as pieces which can be acquired for 
the furnishing of our Old-World House. Here and there the dividing- 
line between the Gothic and the Renaissance has been overstepped, 
but the purely Gothic motives persist for many years, although often 
depraved and half forgotten, until the full tide of the Renaissance 
finally submerges them at last, and no vestige remains of the glory 
which had gone before. 


CHAPTER VIII 
ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS 


sy, HOSE who are in the habit of regarding a chair 
A merely as a piece of furniture with four legs and a 
back, with or without arms, do not appreciate the 
} long process of evolution through which it had to 
ee pass before it reached the stage when it began to 
conform to this definition. With this development 
of the chair went that of the stool and the bench or settle, side by side, 
as one would expect, naturally. 





It would be out of place here, even if it were possible, to illustrate 
a series of examples showing the stages in the evolution of the chair. 
Unfortunately, even for the purpose of a systematic enquiry into the 
development of the English chair, the necessary illustrative material 
is unobtainable; important links are missing, and these we cannot hope 
to reconstruct, pictorially. Rarity, especially when it approaches the 
unique, is very desirable from the view-point of the collector, but from 
that of the student of the history of furniture, a solitary example, 
which follows no fashion and has no fellow, is useless as a link in the 
chain. It is merely in the nature of a freak, and as such can have 
no place in his enquiry. 

For the purpose of this book we are almost compelled to begin with 
the chair on legs. ‘The Gothic prototype of the seventeenth-century 
chair in the form of a box with a back and arms has been illustrated 
on page 155, and a comparison of this with any of the examples given 
in this chapter will show the great change which came over English 
chair construction in the space of a century or less. ‘This period 
would be narrowed, considerably, if we were to adopt the older and 

159 


160 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


incorrect system of referring to Tudor times what we know now to 
be Stuart chairs. In reality, the period of change is shortened in ex- 
tent, but not in this way. The real Tudor chair (which is an 
exceedingly rare piece of furniture for two reasons, which will be 
stated later on) is nearly always a box with a back and arms, less 
ornate, it is true, but similar in constructive principles to its Gothic 
ancestor. An example is shown below and on the next page, and 
there is no doubt that this was the usual chair-style almost until 
the end of the reign of Elizabeth. 
Tudor chairs are exceptional pieces 
at the present day, for the one obvious 
reason that very few have survived the 
three centuries of more ysincemtne 
were in use, and for another, which 
is not so obvious, namely, that the 
sixteenth-century chair was a rare 
article at the time when it. was made. 
At this period the chair was a seat of 
dignity, reserved for the sole” use or 
the master and mistress of the house- 
hold. The usual seat of the guest or 
the retainer was the form, bench, or 
stool. ‘here was another factor which 
caused the chair to be avstill rarer 
article in England. Not only was it 
a piece for the wealthy, unknown in 
the cottage or house of the yeoman 
class, but those who were rich enough 
to possess several houses, were in the 
Oak bar Dated 1574. The Typical habit of taking their chairs with them 
udor Chair. (Victoria and 3 
Albert Museum.) when they migrated from one house to 
another. Even under the first of the 
House of Stuart the chair was not a familiar article of furniture in 
the English house, and it is not remarkable, theretoreystiateacee ne 
present day there are many more stools of this early period to be 





ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS 161 


found than chairs, which suggests as a logical explanation that a far 
greater number were made. ‘There is not the slightest reason for 
supposing that these early Stuart chairs were singled out for destruc- 
tion while the stools of the same period were preserved. 

Up to the dawn of the seventeenth century both chairs and stools 
were joiner-made. The term “joint stool” is a corruption from 
““jyoyned stool,” signifying a piece which was “joyned” or con- 
structed after the joiner’s manner. I know that the later stools with 
turned legs are styled in the same way, but they are also known as 
‘coffin stools,” and for no more reason. In the average household, 
in this or any other time, it could 
not have been the custom to 
provide stools especially to support 
a coffin, any more than, although 
most people die in their bedroom, 
the house-carpenter does not take 
the trouble to make the staircase 
with a movable balustrade, so that 
the coffin can be brought down- 
stairs without trouble. 

On page 162 is shown one of 
these “‘joyned” stools. The con- 
struction is simple and obvious to 
one working with primitive tools. 
Had Robinson Crusoe made himself 
a stool (I do not remember whether 
he did), he would have constructed 
it in much the same manner— 
eiieicamatter a good many 
attempts. He would certainly NOt Oak Chair. The Mid-Sixteenth-Century 
have made a stool as decorative as Ornate Type, with Strong Italian or 
this one, as he confesses that he whites (Victoria and Albert 
was a bad tailor and a worse 
carpenter; and one who, even with his primitive implements, could 


do no better than the awful skin cap which he wears in all the 
I IT 





102 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


illustrations I have seen, must have had the artistic sense very 
imperfectly developed. 

The stool shown here, which dates from the early sixteenth century, 
and is, therefore, Tudor, consists of a top, two ends, and two framing- 
pieces, or “aprons.” It is interesting to trace the constructional 
evolution of such a piece. The top is fixed to the ends by wooden 
pegs driven through. So much is obvious. It would then be found, 
even if the stool held together, that if the ends were fixed in an 
upright position, the stool would have a tendency to fall over. The 
next step, consequently, would be to splay the two ends outwards, 
but then they would break away from the pegs through the top, and 
the stool would flatten out if any weight were placed upon it. To 
remedy this defect, the method which would be devised, in the first 
instance, would be a 
rail placed low down, 
in the centre of the 
ends, momoreed 
through, and wedged 
on the outsides to 
keep it) firmly sin 
place. “Uhistisaj ase 
what has been done 
with the table shown 
here onthe next page, 
a piece which is, ap- 
proximately, of the 
same date as the stool 
which we are con- 
sidering. ‘Thisis good, 
logical construction. 


Oak “Foyned” Stool. Early Sixteenth Century. The Why is it efficient in 
Construction of this Stool should be Noted. (Victoria and 
Albert Museum.) 





the case of a table, yet 
undesirable in that of 
a stool? Because it prevents a number of these stools being piled closely, 
one on another. We know that in great houses of the early Tudor 


ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS 102 


period the accommodation must have been elastic; one day the Great 
Hall would be thronged with retainers, on another it would be empty. 
Probably as many as a hundred or more of these stools had to be kept 
in reserve, so the necessity for close piling would be evident, especially 
as these retainers slept, as a rule, on the floor of the Great Hall, or in 
any odd corner. ‘The joiner, therefore, in making his stools, would 
consider this point—perhaps not immediately, but as the result of 
many experiments—and would substitute the apron-piece for the 
stretcher-rail. At his first attempt he would fix his aprons between 
the ends, pegged from the outsides, but a later refinement would be to 
“halve” them, as shown here. This “halving ” consists in slotting 
the ends to half the apron-depth, and then making a corresponding 
slot in the ends. To cut the apron into the ends, in its entirety, would 
seriously weaken the latter, and to cut the ends into the apron would be 
impossible with the overhanging apron-projections, as in this stool. 
That even with this method some weakness must have resulted the 
illustration will show. It is obvious to anyone looking at this stool 
where the slot in the apron begins, at the top or the bottom. 

The long bench from Barningham Hall, now in the Victoria and 
Albert Museum, shown here on page 164, is constructed in the same 
manner, yet is probably a century earlier than the small stool. 








Oak Table from Cowdray Priory, showing the Early Sixteenth-Century Construction. 
Compare with the Stool on Previous Page. 


During this period constructive principles must have remained 
stationary, more or less. Chairs and stools were made by the 


164 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


carpenter or joiner, and his craft had already developed, almost to the 
fullest extent possible with the tools and appliances of the time, as 
early as the end of the fourteenth century, when Richard II. com- 
menced the gigantic roof to the Norman Westminster Hall. 

These digressions into constructive principles and their evolution 
are beyond the province of this book, yet he who lives with old furniture 
can appreciate it all the more (or should do so) by understanding 
how the old craftsmen encountered all the difficulties inherent to want 
of experience, or defective tools and methods, and how, after many 
efforts (and speaking for myself it is just these efforts which have 
a much greater interest than the perfectly produced™ pieces 
difficulties were triumphantly surmounted, and English furniture 
began to resolve itself into styles and fashions in such manner that it 
is possible to chronicle its history down to the present day. 

The first great stride, after the Tudor period, was the general 
adoption of the turning lathe as a tool of the domestic woodworker. 
To state that the lathe was a discovery of the early Stuart period is 
incorrect. In some of the early church screens, such as the one at 
Chinnor in Oxfordshire, the muntins have turned shafts, and this as 
early as the first years of the fourteenth century. Whethersthes. 
were lathe-turned is doubtful; the lathe facilitates turning enormously, 
yet a round shaft or leg can be fashioned by hand. We know that the 
early Gothic column-shafts of stone were not produced on any 
lathe, but by the mason’s chisel, and the early woodworker copied 





Oak Bench or Form from Barningham Hall, Norfolk. First Half of the Fifteenth Century. 
(Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


the methods of the stonemason very closely, as in the choir-stall 
canopies in Winchester Cathedral, which date from the latter part 


ENGEISH OAK CHAIRS 165 





Oak Inlaid Chair from Barking Church, Suffolk. The Cresting-Rail and Turned Vases 
are not Original; c. 1600. 


166 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


of the thirteenth century, and are hewn from the solid timber, mason- 
fashion. 

The turned shaft did not become a favourite motif with the 
Gothic woodworker, and it is rarely found in the fifteenth-century 
work. As the Church was the dominant patron of the carpenter 
or the joiner, it is not surprising that the lathe should have remained 
in abeyance. Under Henry VIII. the primitive pole lathe begins 
to be used, and it is curious to notice how the reversion to original 
type is as true with regard to woodworking methods as it is in nature. 
In the woods in the district round and about High Wycombe, the 
home of the Windsor chair industry, the primitive pole lathe can still 
be seen in use, differing little, if at all, from the type of the days of the 
second king of the House of ‘Tudor. 

With the lathe as a tool in general use, we get some remarkable 
results, and the separate trade of the chair-maker begins to develop 
away from that of the joiner. Furniture still remained very scanty 
in amount for many years, but stools and chairs began to multiply, 
especially the former, for the reason which has already been given. 
Commencing from the accession of James I. in 1603—when the turned 
leg on chairs and stools began to be general—we get the two trades 





Characteristic Stools of the Seventeenth Century. (H. Chfford Smith, Esq.) 
Elm Stool, c. 1680. Oak Stool, c. 1660. Oak Stool, c. 1630. 


of the cabinet-maker or joiner (the one is only the later name for the 
other) on the one hand, and the chair-maker on the other, at first 


ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS 167 


developing side by side, but afterwards tending to diverge more and 
more widely. “The reasons for this breaking away, in the first instance, 
and the wide difference in the evolution of the two trades, are obvious, 
on a little thought. It is not until the early part of the eighteenth 
century that furniture begins to be made in any great amount, whereas 
in the middle of the seventeenth, or even earlier, chairs and stools 
must have been produced in considerable numbers. ‘The same patron, 
also, who might require one or two tables and a cabinet, chest, or 
hutch, would order several chairs, and possibly a dozen stools. A 
trade which deals with great numbers has every incentive to develop, 
providing the quantity is not produced by machine. ‘Thus we find 
the trade of the chair-maker is always more highly developed, and 
at the same time exhibits the more rapid tendency to become 





Oak Chairs from Lyme Park, Cheshire. Lancashire Type. 
(Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh.) 
£; 1670. c. 1660-70. 


mannered and depraved, than that of the joiner. It is not until 
the close of the seventeenth century, when the age of veneering sets 


168 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


in, that true constructive principles, in the making of furniture, are 
sacrificed, whereas with chairs of James II.’s reign and that of 
Wilham III., which follows it, the fine traditions of the early Stuart 
models are thrown overboard, nor does English chatr-making ever 
regain its early logical character. ‘This, however, is to anticipate 
later chapters of our book. 

During the reign of Henry VIII. a conceit existed for making 
chairs entirely from turned pieces socketed together. These 
““turneyed ”’ chairs are referred to in inventories of the time, and were, 
evidently, highly prized. None appear to have survived, nor is this 
remarkable, considering that the method of constructing a chair in 
this way could not have been good 
or permanent. Below is shown a 
seventeenth-century copy of one of 
these turned chairs, and a little con- 
sideration will show how defective it is 
constructively. That these early Tudor 
chairs existed in the seventeenth 
century is possible, and that this one 
was copied from a model, existent at 
the time when it was made, is probable. 
It is a curious piece, and one cannot 
resist the temptation of saying that the 
fashion probably owed its popularity 
to the fact that the chair-maker was 
enabled to use up any scraps of wood, 
which, from their small size, would 
be useless for any other purpose. 
lshesemetunied pieces, which in- « Turneyed” Chair of Fruit Wood. 
clude the baluster- fronts’ of dole Mid-Seventeenth Century, prob- 
and hanging cupboards, of which Cres Med 
many were made during the seven- Albert Museum.) 
teenth century, are usually con- 
structed from fruit woods, pear, apple, plum, or almond, all 
close-grained timbers which never attain any great size. 





EON GAISHAOA IG AIRS 169 


Chairs of the period of James I. are very much rarer than most 
people imagine, and when found are usually in a deplorable state of 
dilapidation or ignorant addition. The example from Barking 
Church in Suffolk, illustrated here on page 165, is of this date, and with 
the exception of the cresting and finials to the back, and the insertion 
of the rough vase in the central panel, is in almost its original state. 
It is an extremely handome chair, well designed and executed, and 
illustrates the early Stuart method of chopped-in inlay, to which 
further reference will be made in a later chapter dealing with 
English marqueterie. 





5 


= 


(| 
i 





és 




















Oak Armchairs (Midland Type), probably from Cheshire. First Quarter of Seventeenth 
Century. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


Considering the lack of intercommunication between districts 
even as late as the end of the seventeenth century, it 1s not surprising 
that each county or locality should have had the tendency to evolve 


170 THE 














Cheshire Type, c. 1640. 


working-class, up to a very late 
period in English history, were 
born, lived, and died im their 


If the 
daughters left the house, it was 


native village. sons or 
as soldiers or sailors in the one 
case, or as domestic servants in 
the other. 
there was every incentive to stop 


As a general ‘rule, 


at home and to work for the 
notables in the immediate neigh-~ 
bourhood. The living was hard, 
possibly, but it was secure, in a 


certain deoree. =Occasionally a 


OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


a style of its own. In these days 
of the railway train and motor- 
bus we are apt to forget how ex- 
ceedingly untravelled even our 
immediate ancestors were. ‘True, 
there was the stage-coach and the 
post-chaise, but even during the 
last years of the eighteenth cen- 
tury these were not the means of 
The 
workman might journey afield, 
but if he did so it was on foot, 
with his pack on his back. ‘The 


greater number of people of the 


travel for the lower classes. 




















Type of Seventeenth-Century Oak Chair, 
Hertfordshire Type, c. 1660. 


ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS 


workman would migrate to Lon- 
don. A Chippendale would leave 
his native Yorkshire town, or a 
Sheraton his Durham birthplace, 
to try for fortune in the metro- 
polis, the one to become famous, 
and possibly well-to-do, the other 
to achieve a posthumous reputa- 
tion at the expense of poverty 
and neglect, until his death in 
1806. We know of such instances, 
however, solely by reason of their 
exceptional character; the average 
craftsman stayed at home, did 

















Seventeenth-Century Oak Armchair, 


East Anglian, c. 1660. 








Seventeenth-Century Oak Armchair, 
Home County Type, c. 1650. 


much as his fellows, had his share 
of joys or sorrows, such as fate 
decreed, and was laid to rest, at 
last, in his village churchyard. He 
added his quota to the formation 
of a manner, what we know in 


What we 


really mean, when we use the 


furniture as a style. 


term, is that the same models are 
repeated, with little or no modi- 
fication, until from the number 
which survive we are enabled to 
state that this chair was a favourite 
pattern in Lancashire, this was the 














Oak Chair, Lancashire or Derbyshire, 
c. 1640-50. 


that, while they will have all their 
furniture of English origin, they 
care little beyond a general indica- 
tion of period about its further 
history. Yet this knowledge is 
just what gives the collecting of 
English furniture its principal 
charm, beyond the=mere: fact of 
possession or the decorative value 
which each piece may have in the 
furnishing of the home—a value, 
be it noted, which is shared, 
equally, by the reproduction or 
the “ fake.” 


HAE OED WORTD EOS i 


type of Yorkshire, this- of (img 
bordering counties of Wales (Here- 
ford, Cheshire, or Shropshire), and 
that of the Home Counties or of 
East Anglia. If there exist ang 
merit in collecting old furniture, 
as distinct from the purely selfish 
hobby of acquiring things, it 
must be in the education which 
this knowledge of periods, and 
With- 
out this it can matter very little 
if the piece be the work of Eing- 
land, the Low Countries, France, 
Germany, or elsewhere, but it is 
characteristic of many collectors 


localities of origin, gives. 

















Oak Child’s Chair, Lancashire Type, 
¢. 1660-70. 


ENGLISH OAK 


omattempt, im the limited 
space at our disposal in this single 
chapter, to give adequate reasons 
for the ascribing of counties of 
origin to many of the chairs illus- 
trated here is hopeless. To be of 
any service the authorities for 
such origin would have to be 
pictorial; a mere description or a 
reference to this or that example 
in remote parts of England, and 
mot illustrated in these pages, 
would be only vexatious. Some 
account of the method which has 
been adopted: must be stated, or 




















Oak Chair, Wiltshire Type, 
¢. 1670. 


CHAIRS We 














Oak Chair, Warwickshire Type, 
c. 1650. 


these ascriptions may be regarded 
as so much guesswork. Chairs 
which 
movable; there is no reason why 
they should not be taken from 
one place to another, far from 
their original home. This is not 
always the case, however, although 
very few of the larger houses 
remain to-day in the hands of 
their original owners. There is 
also the difficulty that chairs may 
have been imported from other 
counties, almost at the time when 


are articles are readily 


174 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


they were made; and there is no reason, in the majority of instances, 
for supposing that they must have been made locally, by the village 
craftsmen. There are exceptions to this, however, although they are 
becoming rarer almost every day. ‘There still exist records that certain 
chairs were locally made at definite periods and for known houses, 
in which they have remained from that day to this. Old inventories 
show this, and often quite unmistakably, especially in the early periods 
when the chair was a treasured possession. Thus no one will dispute 
the origin of a Yorkshire chair, as so many have been found in that 
county, which have remained 7m situ, that we recognise the type, the 
more as it persists for so long, almost down to the present day. We 























Seventeenth-Century Oak Chairs, Yorkshire Type, c. 1660. 


know the Windsor chair to be a product of Buckinghamshire for the 
same reason. These are the broad types, but there are others which 


ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS ia fs 





are equally unmistakable, although 
not so strongly marked. Here we 
arercompelled to rely, to a great 
extent, Upon carving or other 
details of ornamentation.. We 
know, from similar details. in 
church woodwork, screens, pews, | 
benches or pulpits (work which 
was nearly always local, and which, | 
from its nature, would be very 
likely to remain in the church for 
which it was made), that certain 





patterns were favourites in, say, 
Warwickshire or Somerset, and we 
know also that certain methods | - : | 











Oak Chair, Lancashire Open Back Type, 
c. 1660. 


of construction were followed in 
some counties and districts yet 
notin others. ‘Thus the flattened 
four-petal Tudor rose, such as in 
the back of the right-hand chair 
on page 169, was a favourite 
device with Lancashire chair- 
makers in the early part of the 
seventeenth century, and patterns 
which could be executed with the 
aid of a cutting tool—something 
like a pair of dividers with one 
“leg” filed to a chisel edge—the 
circle or the guilloche (which is 
DEC har, Vorkshire Tope, only a series of circles interlaced), 
c. 1660, or similar motives. 








176 THE OLD-W ORED HOUSE 


Construction often varies widely, yet rarely in the same district. 
Thus in both the chairs on page 169 the cresting to the back is a part 
of the top rail, not dowelled on to it. This cresting-rail is tenoned 
between the uprights or prolongations of the back legs above the seat- 
framing. This is logical construction, and it should be noted very 
carefully, as many of the later chairs do not possess this feature, the 
cresting-rail being fixed on to the uprights, a very much weaker 
method. In the early chairs, where the wood used was heavy and 
strong, this is not a serious defect. Thus it would not be just to 
condemn the four chairs shown on pages 170 and 171 for this reason, 
although they are all constructed in this later manner. At first 














Oak Settle, Somerset and Devon Type, c. 1670. 


glance there is very little constructional difference between the 
Cheshire chair on page 170 and the one from Kent or Sussex shown 


ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS 177 
on page178. The backs of both are framed up, but in the first the top 


rail runs across the uprights of the back; in the second, it is tenoned 
between them. With sufficient force, the top rail of the one could 
be pulled off, or the tenons broken by pressing it backwards or for- 
wards. It isin this way that-any strain comes on a chair-back. In the 
second, the only way in which the top rail can be removed is by 
forcing the uprights apart, and it is difficult to see how the force 
necessary could be exercised. It is true that this second chair had a 
dowelled-on cresting-rail above the back framing, but this being 
weak construction, the rail has disappeared. It may be argued that 
such strength is not necessary in a domestic chair, but once imperfect 
methods are admitted, for the sake of fashion, it is difficult to say when 
they will stop, until we reach the models of the period of James II. 
(as we shall see later on), where constructive principles are ruthlessly 
Swomilccaumtosthe dictates of a passing craze. Also, had the better 
methods been adopted everywhere, and at all periods, the supply 


of genuine antique furniture would not be so limited, at the present 























Oak Settle, Lancashire Type, c. 1670-5. 


day, as it actually is, and the faker would not be compelled to toil 


so hard to make up for the deficiency. 
I T2 














Oak Chair, East Anglian Type, 
c. 1680. 


upholstery. The double - ended 
settee from Forde Abbey, which is 
the last illustration to this chapter, 
has this leather covering and alsoa 
padding of tow, the Cromwellian 
substitute for the later horsehair. 

With oak furniture, as with 
walnut or mahogany, exceptional 
pieces command high prices, yet it 
is still possible to find good repre- 
sentative Stuart chairs, and at 
reasonable figures. ‘Those of York- 
shire or Lancashire origin, as on 


pages 174 and 175, are worthy of 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


To describe in detail all the 
examples illustrated here would 
be tedious and unnecessary. This 
chapter stops short at the intro- 
duction of walnut (although this 
wood was used, in exceptional 
instances, during the oak period) 
and the use of upholstery. Here, 
also, it is unwise to be too arbi- 
trary, as many of the chairs of the 
period of Cromwell had seats and 
backs formed by stretching stout 
leather across them, a method 
which may be styled as embryonic 











Oak Chair, Kent and Sussex Type, 
CAIOTGs 


ENGLISH OAK CHAIRS 179 


the attention of the discriminating collector, as both types are very 
suitable for the Old-World House, especially if it be of half-timber 
construction or of distinctive seventeenth-century character. If a 
number of these chairs be required, for the dining-room, there will 
be the interest of the search for examples as nearly alike as possible. 
Original sets of either Yorkshire or Lancashire chairs are very excep- 
tional, and it is not worth an exaggerated price to have them all of 
the one pattern exactly. Slight variation in each adds to the charm, 
in my opinion. One would not desire a kennel of dogs so exactly 
alike that one would not know one from another; why not apply the 
same principle to chairs? 

The seats of these Yorkshire chairs are nearly always slightly sunk, 
and this recessing is ideal to hold in position thin squab cushions, 
covered with a leather such as a Niger morocco, or, better still, a 
good cut-pile silk velvet. The latter will add a welcome touch of 
colour to relieve the otherwise sombre oak. 

It is somewhat surprising to find how perfectly designed many of 
these oak chairs arc, and how carefully the comfort of the sitter has 
been studied. It is also not generally recognised how much this 
comfort depends upon accurate proportioning, the right height of 
seat and the correct slope of the back, rather than upon such aids as 
upholstery can give. Thus, the chair on the right hand of page 171 
was ideal. I had the opportunity of testing its qualities for some 
years, and I parted from it with much regret. It was not my property, 
however (I stood in loco parentis to it—in other words, I “ minded ” it 
foreadrmend), sol had no alternative. 

It is dificult to say how much of this combination of comfort and 
appearance is due to a long tradition and a gradual elimination of 
errors of design, which tradition always implies. ‘The Windsor chair 
of commerce, especially the pattern known as a “ smoking chair,”’ is 
a good example of this. Here is a good-looking, comfortable chair 
produced at a very trifling cost. T’he type is very old, however, 
dating from the early years of the eighteenth century, if not before, 
made by the million, and with gradual modifications and improve- 
ments introduced at long intervals. The result is as near perfection 
as one can hope for. While on this subject, the eighteenth-century 


180 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Windsor chairs, of the hooped-back kind, with central splats in the 
manner of Chippendale, are valuable pieces. ‘They are nearly always 
made from yew, with seats of elm. 

Space considerations preclude the illustration of any other than 
representative specimens of these Stuart oak chairs. Apart from the 
fact that the patterns are legion, there are many variations from the 
chair-form, the stool-table, the box-settle, the stool with cupboard, 
and the chair-table, which are not exceptional, but possess great 
interest for the true collector. Stools themselves offer a wide field 
for historical enquiry. There is the one which was made, as an 
accessory to the spinning-wheel, small and narrow in the seat, and 
with a marked outward splay to the legs. These distaff stools are 
now very rare. ‘They are generally richly carved, as spinning was the 
polite occupation of the wealthy lady. Another variety was of excep- 
tional height: from 21 to 23 inches, instead of the usual 17, intended, 
in all probability, for use at the tambour or the embroidery frame. 
Nowadays, the term “ coffin stool” is often used to describe them all. 

One must take leave of the English oak chair with considerable 
regret. We shall see, in succeeding pages, examples which are more 
ornate, more remarkable in every way, perhaps better designed, if 
detail and proportion only are to be considered, but the sturdy 
and logical character which distinguishes the English oak chair at its 
best, departs with it, never to be revived again, not even during the 


finest period of Thomas Chippendale and his school. 

















Oak Settle or Couch Covered in Leather, from Forde Abbey, c. 1660. 


CHART ERIS 
ENGLISH OAK TABLES 


T would be imagined, at a cursory glance, that the 
closest structural kinship existed between the table 
and the chair, especially during the oak period. 
Take an oak chair, similar to any of the examples 

Ne illustrated in the last chapter, without arms, and if 

, we cut away the back above the seat, we get, in effect 
and in construction, a miniature table. There is the further relation 
between the two pieces in the chair-tables which were actually made, 
where the top or the back, according to whether we are regarding 
the piece as a table or a chair, was pivot-hinged, forming a top when 
it was laid flat and a back when raised. Such a chair-table is shown 
here on the next page. The top, or the back, consists of a number of 
boards, secured by battens or runners underneath, these battens 
being bolted to the arms so that the top can be raised or lowered, 
and when upright—that is, when the piece is in use as a chair—the 
overhang at the back acts as a buttress against the arm-balusters. 

Dealing, as we have to do, with the evolution of type rather than 
with similarities of construction, there is, in reality, a closer associa- 
tion, in development, between the early table and the chest or coffer 
than between the table and the chair. At a later stage, chests and 
tables diverge very widely, but no more than chairs and tables do. 

There are the two factors, with chairs, to which reference has been 

made in the previous chapter, the one that they were the product of a 

distinct trade, and the second, that chairs were made in far greater 

numbers than other articles of furniture. Both would tend to carry 


the trade of the chair-maker into different paths, quite away from 
ISI 


WS ar a: 









182 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


the craft of the joiner, who would be responsible for chests and 
tables, but not for chairs. 

Of the form and construction of the earliest tables in England we 
know nothing, nor is it possible that we shall ever know, as every 
example has disappeared. We may be led astray, in our efforts to 
trace the genesis of the type, by the fact that the table is only a 
comparatively late innovation in English furniture, and that its 
prototype was the chest. ‘Tables of the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries may have never existed. ‘There is some ground for this 

















Oak Chatr-Table, c. 1660. 


theory. In Westminster Abbey is a large chest or coffer, upwards 
of 13 feet in length. It is difficult to understand a piece as large as 


ENGLISH OAK TABLES 183 


this, where the lid must have been unreasonably heavy and cumbrous 
to open, if it were not intended to act as a long table at the same time. 
‘There is nothing to be placed in a chest which would entail a length 
of 13 feet; mere capacity is no reply, as two chests, each of half this 
length, would be much more useful, and more easily transported from 
place to place, should occasion arise. ‘There may have been a need, 
however, for one table of this size, where two would not have answered 
miesourpose.» I tue, the chest 1s lower than the usual table, but this 
is only because chairs and stools are made, roughly, 18 inches in seat- 
height instead of 10 or 12. Japanese tables, in a country where it is 
the custom to sit on the floor, are made as low as 6 inches or less. 
I know that 18 inches, roughly, is the comfortable sitting-height, 
whether at a table or away from it, but the question of dignity—which 
played an important part in the Middle Ages—may have dictated 
that certain persons should be raised above others, especially at meals, 
and this custom may have commenced with the low stool and the high 
chair, and have developed, in secular houses, into the chairs or stools 
of normal height, but with those for favoured guests placed on a dais 


mv 






Oak Table in the Vicar? Hall at Exeter. Very much “ Restored.’ This is prebably an 
Original Late Sixteenth-Century Table. 


in the Great Hall, while in clerical establishments, where the chair 
was not a usual article of furniture at all, the progression was from 


184 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


bench to pew, choir stall, and finally to abbot’s throne, the last erected 
on three or four steps above the chancel-level. 

The earliest tables which are known to exist at the present day 
are the huge Gothic trestles at Penshurst. One of similar type, 
probably of considerably later date, and certainly much restored, is, 
or was, at Great Fulford in Devon. These are exceptional pieces, 
however, and are not for the average collector or for the furnishing 
of the Old-World House. It is as well, however, to be able to 
recognise these early tables, on the principle that we may be lucky 
enough to stumble across a rare example hitherto unknown or un- 
suspected. It is not likely, but it is possible. The knowledge 
necessary to enable the collector to distinguish between original 
fifteenth-century work and twentieth-century imitation must be 
presumed, and a long purse may be convenient. A little expert 
advice is also not to be despised on occasion. 


see. 


<0<Z>4X>¢zp-4E ps 





Oak Table with Bulb-Turned Legs and Chequer-Inlaid Frieze. The Bulb has the familiar 
Gadroon Carving on both Upper and Lower Members ; c. 1640. 


Oak tables—that is, of the kind with which we are immediately 
concerned in this chapter—may be roughly divided into (1) the long, 
narrow, so-called refectory table, seldom less than 8 or g feet in length 


ENGLISH OAK TABLES 


185 


nor more than 3 feet in width; (2) a shorter kind, known as draw-tables, 
where half-tops are arranged on runners—called “ lopers ”’—to pull 











Oak Refectory Table with Simple Inlaid Frieze. 


usual Gadroon above and Acanthus below. 








The Legs have the 
1640 Type. 


out and in- 
crease the 
length of the 
main top; 
and(3) tables 
with hinged 
tops OL 
Wihtcheet ne 
[cate eo. 
is the most 
familiar il- 
iMstratrou.s 


Many of the 


refectory or draw type are commonly referred to the period of 
Elizabeth, although it is extremely doubtful if half a dozen tables 
exist which can be described, on reliable evidence, as belonging to the 
The one in the quaint old hall of the Vicars’ 


Choral at Exeter, with its small frontage and curious door, open- 


sixteenth ‘century. 


ing directly 
from~- the 
Sireer, 15 the 
best approxi- 
mation to an 
Elizabethan 
table which 
I have seen, 
although the 
““improve- 
ments: a Of 
Vactorian 
times, which 


have added 


| 

















Oak Table with Guilloche-Carved Frieze. The Legs show the Develop- 
ment Towards the Later Tapered Baluster Form; c. 1660. 


apelicw = topsand  iixed as horriblescappime (to. the 


old stretcher-rails, have almost succeeded in transforming this fine 


186 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


table into an ignorant forgery or travesty. In its present condition 
(and it does not seem to be in any danger of being properly restored, 
as the Vicars’ Hall appears to be the care of nobody in Exeter that I 
could discover*) it is shown here on page 183, together with the 
wonderfully realistic linen-fold panelling with which the hall is 
wainscotted. The chairs shown behind the table are obvious 
“Victorian Tudor,” but there is a very interesting mantel on the 
south side which dates certainly from the first years of the sixteenth 
century, if not, earlier. 

The Gothic table has been specifically referred to above, as it may be 
necessary to warn the collector (however unnecessary such caution may 
appear to be) against certain tables with four or more square legs, carved 





Oak Table with Legs and Frieze Gadroon-Carved. Mid-Seventeenth-Century Type of the 


Western Counties. 


with Gothic detail, and with remains of what purports to be original 
painting in the quirks, or recesses. ‘To anyone who has studied the 


* The local policeman, who took pains to inform me that he had been on duty for 
years, did not even know of the existence of the old hall of the former singing men of 


Exeter Cathedral. 


ENGLISH OAK PABLES 107 


development of the early table in England such pieces are as absurd 
and as anachronistic as an Elizabethan bicycle, but, unfortunately, 
pee be ST ce Ee eee See Se ethic oppor- 
| a Oe | EU Iya of 

| seeing and 
examining 
pre - Tudor 


| tables occurs 





to very few. 
It is doubt- 
tuliit halt a 
dozen ex- 
amples exist ; 





I only know 


| Las - of three. It 
Oak Draw-Table with Heavy Bulbous Legs. Early Seventeenth- 18 quite cer- 
Century Type. 





tain, how- 
ever, that, prior to the sixteenth century, no table on legs, whether 
Square: or turned, was ever made. Even for many years after 
Henry VIII. ‘i: ies f. Eat soleus s 
came tosthe! || 
throne the 4 
fashion was | 
Gomes tilne «| 
trestle type, | 
similarto the 
one shown | 
on page 163, | 
but,asarule, 
from much | 
heavier tim- 
ber, and sel- 
Groin = lies s 
than 10 feet in length. The early seventeenth-century table is nearly 
always of considerable length—from 7 feet upwards—and narrow, 














Oak Draw-T able with Inlaid Frieze. The Bulb Legs Finish under the 
Frieze Rail inV oluted Capitals; c.1630. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


188 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


rarely more than 3 feet. ‘The top is composed of a number of battens, 
sometimes with clamp pieces at the ends, but more often with 
thes Doar sie ee We tale nee ee ee | 
tongued and | gg - ee Oe a | 
grooved andl SGC 
pegged 
through to 
the framing 
of the table 
ben eatin 
The turning 
of the legs, 








Heo ery ecaraa! 
vaticds othe). 1 = 
patterns may 

be, always takes one of two forms. In the first, it is contained within 
the squares into which the upper framing or the stretcher-railing is 
tenoned.. In the second, the leg centres in a massive bulb, of much 
greater thickness than the squares. The same fashion is used for the 
posts of the large oak testered bedsteads of this period, or for the 
balusters 
| ~ 

| 

| 





Oak Draw-Table with Baluster Legs, c. 1650. 





of  <tahee 
COuUrt fom 
standing 
cupboards. 
This detail 
| “was, 1njall 
probability, 
derived 
from Dutch 











a ae sOUTC Eee 
Oak Draw-Table with Marked Dutch Character especially in the Form that it was 


of the Stretcher. Late Seventeenth Century. : 
an “a ribs 


trary fashion is shown by the fact that the bulb itself does not add any 
strength to the leg—on the principle that the breaking strain of a 


ENGLISH OAK TABLES 189 


chain is in its weakest link—and is wasteful both of labour and timber. 
Modern commercialism would make a bulbous leg in three pieces, 
with the bulb itself turned from thicker wood than the sections 
above and below it, with the three sections dowelled together. The 
Jacobean leg, however, is in one piece, as an almost invariable rule, 
although this entails the cutting away of a considerable amount of 
wood on the lathe, and the planing down, on four sides, of the upper 
and lower squares. ‘That the bulb was intended only as an orna- 
mental device is indicated by the fact that, in English tables, it is 
never left plain, but is always carved, generally with a crudely cut 
acanthus on the lower section, and a gadroon on the one above. 
When the bulb is found uncarved, a Dutch origin is nearly always 
to be suspected. 

The second class, that of the turned leg which is contained in its 
own square-thickness, is more often plain than carved. It is much 














Oak Gate-Leg Table. The Early Seventeenth-Century Type of Column Leg with Turned 
Cellars. 


more popular in the work of the Home Counties and East Anglia than 
elsewhere, and these plain legs, relying on no carving to disguise any 


190 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


imperfection of line, are nearly always well turned and gracefully 
formed. 

It is the leg where the turning is contained within the wood of 
its upper and lower squares which develops; the bulb-leg ceases 
entirely when the fashion for this form declines, and it is seen no more 
in English furniture. ‘The former type evolves in two ways, both of 
which are the direct result of greater facility acquired in the use of 
the turning lathe and additional knowledge gained of its possibilities. 
The first manner is the twist-turning of the first Restoration years, 
although many of the early examples have this spiral, fashioned entirely 
by hand, in the Gothic manner of two hundred years before. Whether 
the fashion for the twist caused the slide-rest to be invented, or 


4 
Figes 


fea 


fee 


- 
ee 
° 
es 


Aint ee % ae 


be 


ay 5 ae Sie ee ben 
Yee @5ia 





Oak Gate-Leg Table with the Bobbin-Turning of the Commonwealth Period. 


whether this adjunct to the lathe rendered spiral-turning a com- 
mercial possibility, and thus enabled it to become popular, it is not 


ENGLISH OAK TABLES 191 


possible to say. The slide-rest is not an English invention; it was 
known and used, in a primitive way, on the Continent for fifty years, 
at least, before its presence becomes evident in English twist- 
work.* 

Spiral-turning, belonging, properly, to the walnut years, which 
may be said to begin with the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, 
and this chapter being, practically, confined to oak tables prior to 
that date (although the later types illustrated here carry us beyond 
almost to the end of the Stuart period), the description of lathe- 
twisting must be reserved for a later chapter. 

From the exaggerated bulb-turning of the early years of the 
seventeenth, possibly of the later sixteenth, century, table legs evolve 
in several ways. We find the bulb itself more restrained, contained 
within its own leg-squares, as on page 186, or else tapered in the form 
of an inverted vasc, as on page 188. Another fashion which develops 





Oak Gate-Leg Table with Twisted Legs of the Early Restoration Years, c. 1660. 


simultaneously with, but independently of the bulb, is the column, 
sometimes with a plain shaft, more often with turned collars, as on 


* The principle of the slide-rest is explained in Chapter XIII. 


192 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


page 189. There is a rare form of this leg where both the column 
base and capital are used, the shaft sometimes left plain, more usually 
fluted, and in rare instances carved with a kind of arabesque ornament 
clothing the leg itself. 

In this breaking away from the heavy bulb in the direction of 
lighter detail we find exceptional forms, such as the reeded shaft 
(page 186), or the octagonal section (page 188). The latter is, properly, 
a Dutch form, and is generally found in combination with certain 
other defined characteristics, which indicate a Low Country origin. 
The vase-turning, as on the arm-supports of the chair-table on 
page 182 isa distinct fashion, and great skill and taste is often exhibited 
in the fashioning of these legs. Every designer knows the enormous 
variety which can be obtained by the shape and proportioning of the 
two ogival lines which form this kind of vase. ‘The altar railing in 
New Romney Church in Kent is one of the best examples of delicate 
vase-baluster turning which I know. 














Walnut Gate-Leg Table with Twisted Legs and Moulded Stretcher-Railing, c. 1670. 


On page 188 the vase is inverted. This form was used in a variety 
of ingenious ways, almost until the close of the seventeenth century. 
The bobbin or reel turning, as on page 1990, is practically confined to 


ENGLISH OAK TABLES 193 


the Commonwealth period. The twist, although used at all times 
during the Stuart period and to be found, also, in Gothic screens and 
railings as early as the fourteenth century, only becomes general after 
the Restoration, and, while found in oak, is more properly a walnut 
fashion. During the whole ofthe seventeenth century there is the 
growing tendency to make tables of smaller size, until after about 
1690 they begin to take on distinctive functions (such as the card 
table, for example) and types begin to multiply. ‘The method of 
pivoting one or more of the legs so that it could be swung out, to 
support a hinged flap of the top, permits of the development of the 
gate-leg table. There are many varieties of the gate-leg. Asa rule the 
flaps are hinged across the depth of the table, which precludes a greater 
width of top than § or 6 feet when opened, but in rare instances the 
flaps are fitted the other way, resulting in a very long and narrow table 
when they are down. ‘The stretchering necessitates the framing of 


two legs at top and bottom—known as a “ gate”? in consequence— 














Walnut Gate-Leg Table of Late Stuart Period with Splayed-Out Feet, a Crude Form of the 
Braganza or Portuguese Toe, c. 1680-90. 


but at a later stage, probably just prior to the eighteenth century, 
the leg is secured to the underframing of the top only, a portion 
I 13 


194 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


of which swings out on a wooden hinge (with a metal pin), thereby 
forming the “ pull-out ” leg tables which are the direct successors 
of the gate type. This is the later development, however, and 
belongs to the walnut and mahogany periods, not to the oak years. 

A much greater variety of woods appears to have been used, at all 
periods, for tables than for other furniture. In this respect the early 
English table is peculiar. From its form and construction it is possible 
to use small pieces, especially for turned legs of the less exaggerated 
kind, although the same may be said, in even greater degree, of chairs, 
but here the choice of woods is usually more restricted. I have found 
these later Stuart tables made from oak, walnut, elm, ash, yew, apple, 
pear, cherry, damson, plum, and other woods which are better known 
to the horticulturist, perhaps, than to the joiner. 


Ole vee TDI 


CGisis, COPPFERS AND CUPBOARDS OF THE 
OAK PERIOD 


% ITH the single exception, perhaps, of the stool, the 
{ chest or coffer is not only the earliest piece of furniture 
in England of which we have any knowledge, but it is 
also the prototype of all the others which succeed it. 
With primitive tools and methods of construction 
borrowed from the stonemason (in both furniture 
and woodwork of the thirteenth century, or earlier, timber is handled 
and worked in practically the same way as stone), the first problem 
would be, what to do with the tree when felled? The idea of sawing 
it into planks and pieces, and constructing furniture by building up 
with mortise and tenon, or any other of the joints known to the 
carpenter, would be a later development. ‘Thus the huge choir-stall 
canopies in Winchester Cathedral are hewn from the solid timber, 
yet at the close of the fourteenth century, in the gigantic roof of 
Westminster Hall, Hugh Herland, the King’s master carpenter, 
employs all the constructive methods which are known to the present- 
day joiner, and shows a knowledge of the possibilities and limitations 
of wood which demonstrates, clearly, that the craft of the carpenter 
was already far advanced at his date. 

It must not be imagined that the same degree of progression in 
constructional knowledge was present in all other branches of the 
woodworker’s art. Had the development proceeded on homogeneous 
lines, we would be justified in referring many of the “‘ dug-out”’ coffers 
(that is, where they are hewn from the solid timber) to very early times 
indeed, yet it is very doubtful if some of these examples are not even 
195 





196 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


later than Herland’s roof. The next method of chest-construction 
is hardly less primitive. Stout posts are provided for each corner, 
prolonged as feet to keep the chest from the damp of the floor, and the 
front, back, and ends are rough slabs of wood grooved or tenoned into 
them. In some cases the posts were dispensed with, the front and 
back being fixed to the ends directly with large clout-headed nails. 
It is not until the late sixteenth century that chest-fronts or ends 
begin to be panelled. 

There can be little doubt that from the end of the fourteenth 
century, for a period of nearly two hundred years, the carpenter was 
an artisan of greater knowledge and status than the furniture maker, 
the huchier, or arkwright—literally the maker of “ arks,”’ as chests were 
often styled in early records. With the carpenter, the assistance of 
the wood-carver was by way of decoration merely, but carving was 
often the actual finish of much of the arkwright’s work, which would 
possess neither definite form nor completeness if it were omitted. 





Painted Oak Chest with Applied Facets, c. 1600. 


The pulpit at Chivelstone in Devonshire (which cannot be much 
earlier than the concluding years of the fifteenth century, and may 


ee oe 


= 


« 
’ 


. 





Pees TS, COFFERS CAND CUPBOARDS 197 


be even later) is an example, fashioned from the solid trunk almost 
entirely by the carver’s chisel and gouge. To say that a greater 


Meene e ot 
knowledge 
was not pos- 
sessed, at this 
period, than 
to hewa pul- 
Pitsout of a 
solid mass of 
timber is ob- 
viously ab- 
carres but 
here is one 
fashioned in 
this way, a 

















Oak Chest with Panelled and Arcaded Front. Mid-Seventeenth 


Century. Kent or Sussex. 


method which no craftsman accustomed to framing and similar con- 


structional devices would have adopted. 


lthissunwise, thereiore,-to 


refer these “dug-out” chests to a very early period solely on the 

















Oak Chest with Panelled and Moulded Front. Dated 1637. Midland, 


Cheshire, or Derbyshire. 


(Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


evidence of 
their primi- 
tive charac- 
iter 

The box, 
in one form 
or another, 
either dug- 
out or con- 
Srtaleuccit eres 
would prob- 
ably bes the 
first piece of 


furniture to be made. As soon as the need arose to secure possessions 
which were prized, a box of some kind would be the immediate 
follower of the hole in the ground with slab of wood or stone for a 


198 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


lid. The tomb itself would be an ever-present reminder of the 
advantages of the chest. Small boxes would function as seats 














Oak Chest with Panelled Front, c. 1640. Kent, Rochester, or Maidstone District. 


(even the Elizabethan chair, as we have seen, was really a box 
with a back and arms), larger ones as centre or side tables, while 
preserving their useful character of containing things. The cup- 
board, which in its primitive form is merely a chest turned up 














Oak Chest with Panelled and Arcaded Front, c. 1650. Rye or Romney Marsh District. 








on its end, with the top functioning as a door, would be a later 
development from the chest-form. Thus we find chests existing 


Pees 15, CORPERS. 41ND CUPBOARDS 109 


to-day which have come down to us from as early as the thirteenth 
century, yet no cupboards, in any form, which can be referred to 
anything like such a date. True, this is not conclusive, as the chests 
may have been preserved and the cupboards destroyed, but this is 
not likely. The cupboard came later simply because it had only one 
use, to contain articles, whereas the chest had several, as we 
have seen. 

The development of construction appears to be the same in both the 
early chests and cupboards. In Chapter VII. examples of the former, 
including the one from Dersingham Church (page 152), which dates 
from the close of the fourteenth century, were given, and it will be 
noticed that there is little or no attempt at framing at this period. 
The chest-front is solid, although mortised into stout corner-posts 
which contain also the sides, and all ornament of moulding or carving 
is cut into the wood. There is no attempt made at applied work, 
involving the use of an adhesive such as glue. In the same way, the 
doors of the Gothic cupboard are solid slabs of wood, hinged with 











Oak Inlaid Chest, c. 1640. Probably East Anglian. 


metal or straps of stout leather nailed to the door and the style. 
Where ventilation was desired—some of these cupboards were 


200 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


intended to contain food—this was effected by piercing these doors 
in patterns, usually geometrical, but sometimes in free form (see 
page 157). It is to be noted as a curious fact, and one indicating 
that chests and cupboards were the work of the hAuchier, or ark- 
wright—an inferior craftsman to the carpenter—that wall-panellings 
were made for many years, during which time the possibilities of 
the mortise and tenon, in framing, were either not known or not 
practised by the makers of these chests or cupboards. It is not until 
late in the reign of Elizabeth that the chest-front or cupboard door 
is framed and panelled. ‘To those who are interested in the subject 
of English furniture from the historical and developmental sides, as 
distinct from the mere acquiring and possessing, this plurality in 
production is an important point. It has been the custom hitherto 
to regard the evolution of workmanship and design as from the 
simple to the complex, or from the crude to the highly finished. 
Convenient as this method might be, there is no such royal road to 
an understanding of the subject. Prior to the Dissolution of the 

















Oak Chest with Inner-Frame Panelled Front, c. 1665. East Anglian of Fine Type. 


Monasteries, that is before 1535, English woodwork had reached its 
zenith, and, from such rare examples of furniture as have persisted 
to our day (the chair already shown on page 155 may be taken 


Ke 


PACH ESTS, COFFERS, AND CUPBOARDS 201 


as a good, but not necessarily an exceptional, example), we can 
estimate the furniture standard as very little, if at all, inferior. 
Those who deny that the Gothic woodworking skill was cloistered in 
abbey and monastery, and that very little of artistic craftsmanship 
existed beyond the shadow of the Church, may, perhaps, be able to 
solve this riddle. Why does the former skill and taste depart for many 
years after the Dissolution had driven forth monks and lay brethren 
to roam the highways or haunt the thickets throughout broad England ? 
We find the Gothic influence after 1550, it is true, but how debased ! 
Principles, taste, and craftsmanship, which had made the fifteenth 
century so renowned in the annals of English woodwork, had all 
departed. Whither? ‘Take any example of the crude Gothic of the 
later years of Henry VIII., such as the hutch already illustrated on 
page 157. This is not the work of a race of craftsmen which had 
forgotten the earlier traditions, it is the crude barbaric production 
of men who had never known anything better. Yet it is so easy, 

















Oak Chest with Inner-Frame Panelled Front, c. 1650. East Anglian or 
Home County Work. 


because of this very crudity, to place such pieces at a much earlier 
date than the one to which they properly belong. 
For the collector, especially one of modest means, such as would 


202 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


possess our Old-World House, the oak furniture which is possible 
begins with the seventeenth century only, and this is especially true 
of the chest and cupboard. Some knowledge and a nice discrimina- 
tion may result in the unearthing of a Gothic piece, if only a fragment. 
If furniture of the fifteenth century still exist, we may be sure that it 
is in little known and unexpected quarters, and possibly held in small 
esteem. After all, collecting is an unexciting business when both 
parties to a transaction know the value to the uttermost farthing. 








Oak Chest of Drawers with Moulded Fronts, c. 1685. Eastern County Origin. 


In the house of low rooms, such as our Old-World House is, the 
oak chest possesses special advantages in the harmonious arrangement 
of furniture. It is low, has a flat top on which china or bronzes can 


OAK CHESTS, COFFERS, AND CUPBOARDS 203 


be displayed in the most decorative way, and one can, if so disposed, 
almost make a dado of these seventeenth-century chests round a room 
without the appearance of overcrowding, and with the gain which the 
infinite variety and interest of really fine examples gives, apart from the 
individual and personal note which each piece has for its collector. 
Thus we may commence with an early Stuart—possibly a late 
Elizabethan—chest, such as the one on page 196, where the decoration, 
apart from the running guilloche pattern in the frieze, consists entirely 
of applied faceted pieces and split balusters. There are many evi- 
dences to show that the original finish of these early chests was paint, 
in many colours of yellows, reds, blues, and greens, garish possibly, 
especially at the time when they were new, but in accordance with 
the tastes and fashions of their period. 








Oak Chest inlaid with Bone and Mother-o’-Pearl, c. 1685-90. East Anglian. 


On page 197 is a low chest in the rich manner of Kent or Sussex 
of the mid-seventeenth century, strongly influenced from French 
sources. ‘The top has heavy end-clamps, and the ends are panelled— 


204 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


a rather unusual feature. Below this is a dated example, carved with 
the name “ Esther Hobsonne”’ across the centre of the frieze. A 
chest of this kind would, probably, be made to commemorate a 
birth, perhaps of the local landowner’s daughter, to be periodically 
filled with linen or fabrics as a gradually accumulating gift, until the 
child arrived at a marriageable age. Did Esther Hobsonne ever 
arrive at maturity to enjoy her chest and its contents? I wonder ! 
From the Rochester or Maidstone district of Kent comes the 
fine example on page 198. Here the detail of the carving is of pure 
French in- 
Spiration, 
although a 
conventional 
form of the 
Tudor’ rose 
is’ usedsaeo 
centre each 
panel. site. 








curious to 
notice, in the 
| .end = pos 
| how ‘tine 
| Gothic tra- 
dition © still 
lingers. 

| A good 
| deal of dis- 
cussion has 
| arisen from 
| time to time 


as to the 
Oak Cabinet Inlaid with Bone and Mother-o’-Pearl. The Feet are 1 Loe : 
Later Additions; c. 1685-90. East Anglian. egitimate 


use Of “tie 
words “ coffer” and “chest.” Mr. Fred Roe, whose knowledge 


of English oak furniture must be received with the greatest respect, 














Oe heCHESTS, COFFERS, AND CUPBOARDS 205 


maintains that he is using the two in the architectural sense, the 
coffer having a front of one single panel (or slab?), the chest- 
front being broken up into two or more. May this not be (I say it 
with all deference) seeking for a distinction where none exists? The 
word “ chest,” as I understand it, is merely the Anglo-Saxon cyste, 
the Danish kzste, the Latin cista, or the German kiste, very slightly 
modified, while the coffer is derived from the old French cofre 
(modern French coffre), all meaning a chest or box. ‘That “ coffer” or 
“chest,” in the various old spelling modes of England, was used at 
different times, depended, in my opinon, on whether one was writing 
with a Norman or a Saxon bias. As some justification for Mr. Roe’s 
distinction (however fine-drawn it may be) may be mentioned the 
desirability ieee bas 
of distin- _ SOS eee 
eed —————————— someon 

tween the 
chest with 
and without 
panelled 
fro Dt, os O 
that when a 
writer uses 
the word 
rcOllere:= OF 
‘* chest ’’ we 
know exactly 
Whe oaee 
means to 





convey. In 
this connec- 
tion, how- 
ever, the box Oak Open Buffet, c. 1600. East Anglian. 

facing page § 

of Mr. Roe’s “‘ History of Oak Furniture,” is a true coffer, but so 
is the one at the top of Plate LXIII. in the same book. 











206 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


The mid-seventeenth-century chests from Kent and Sussex, 
especially those in which many of the French details, such as the 
guilloche, are copied, are attractive pieces, and are not beyond the 
purse of the modest collector, as a rule. A good deal depends, of 
course, on the amount of eagerness to buy which 1s exhibited; dealers 
are but human. A good example, with pilastered and arcaded front, 
is shown on page 198. Chests with inlay (always chopped into the 
solid wood in the manner which will be described in the next chapter) 





Oak Angle Buffet with Chequer Inlay, c. 1630. Probably Derbyshire Origin. 


are somewhat rare. The one on page 199 is typical of the work of 
the East Anglian counties. The front is panelled, with applied 
mouldings. 


Pee CH ESS, COFFERS, AND CUPBOARDS 207 
The richest chests, which are also generally of Norfolk, Suffolk, 


or Essex origin, are those where the fronts are “ inner-frame”’ 
panelled, as on page 200. The oak here is of the highest quality, 
cleft instead of sawn, a method which displays the fine “ splash ” 
figure of the wood to the greatest possible advantage. In the centre 
of each panel is a faceted rectangle of cherry wood, stained to a deep 
shade. With the exception of some restoration to the feet, which is 
clearly noticeable in the illustration, this chest is the finest and rarest 
example shown in these pages. 








Oak Open Angle Buffet, c. 1640. Midland Counties. (C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


During the Commonwealth period a fashion begins for the in- 
tricate mitring of mouldings in the decoration of the fronts of chests 


208 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


and similar pieces. Occasionally the panels are further enriched with 
an inlay of bone, ivory, and mother-o’-pearl, sometimes cut into 
veneers and laid marqueterie-fashion, more often cut into the solid 
wood. ‘The next four illustrations show examples of this style, which 
appear to have been confined to the Eastern Counties of England, 
south of the Humber. I have never seen this work in Midland 
furniture, certainly not with anything like the refinement displayed 




















Oak Court Cupboard with Chequer Inlay, c. 1640. Lancashire or Yorkshire. 


in the beautiful chest shown on page 201. ‘That this style originates 
from Holland there can be little question, but transmuted through 


Pm ieCOESTS, COPPERS, AND CUPBOARDS 209 


English channels it gains enormously. In the three pieces on 
pages 202, 203, and 204 will be noticed the development in the direc- 
tion of the chest with drawers, which became such a characteristic 
article of furniture in the early years of the eighteenth century. 

The buffet in its various forms begins as an article of furniture 
made for the display of plate, silver before and after the Common- 
wealth, pewter during the Puritan years. ‘The open buffet, such as 
on page 205, which is really a sideboard of three tiers, is extremely rare, 
although forgeries abound. Some of these are exceptionally clever, 




































































Oak Court Cupboard, c. 1650. West Country (Warwickshire ?). 


that is, if one is prepared to make certain concessions at the outset. 
These open buffets are early; they are exceptional after about 1630. 
I 14 


210 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


The construction of this time did not admit of applied and glued 
mouldings. ‘The tops are always a thin plank, sometimes left without 
any other finish, but often reinforced by a small moulding, mitred 
round and nailed to the frieze. The next development, which begins 
early in the reign of Charles I., is the angle-buffet, where the upper 
tier is filled with a cupboard splayed on the sides. Two examples, 
both of Midland origin, are shown on pages 206 and 207. The second 
is an example of an oak piece of remarkably high quality. These 

















Oak Court or Standing Cupboard, c. 1660. Kent or Sussex Origin. 


angle-buffets are also excessively rare, and even more extensively 
forged than those of the open type. 
With the court or standing cupboard, both the upper and the 


Orie tots, *COPPERSSAND*®*CUPBOARDS 211 


lower stages are enclosed with doors. In the one on page 208 the 
upper part is that of the angle-buffet, with central door and splayed 
sides. This is exceptional and early. The more usual kind is where 
the upper stage has two or three doors. The front is nearly always 
divided into three panels, but in some instances the central one 





does not open. : 
Drawers in the 
rae eames St) 0 Tl 
Bacer200,, are ex- 
Cepttonals ~The 
cupboard on 
page 210 can be 
taken as a repre- 
sentative piece, of 
fine quality, of its 
time. In practi- 
cally every case 
the top is a thin 
plank, generally 
with the grain of 
the wood running 
lengthwise (1.é., 
from side to side 
of the piece), but 
in some examples 
from back to front 
in a number of 
aches Se 
tongued and 
ere Gy Sve eee ee ee grew es a2 
showing the end Oak Court or Standing Cupboard, c. 1670. Welsh Bordering 

’ Counttes. 
grain on the front. 

Occasionally, as in this example, the top is “‘ thicknessed ”’ up with 
a small cornice moulding, mitred round and nailed to the frieze, under 
the overhang of the top boards. Classical cornices, as on page 209, 











212 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


especially with forward breaks over the balusters, are very rare, and 
never found in East Anglian or Home County work. 

With these chests and cupboards we take leave of English furniture 
of the oak period. ‘To the trained craftsman it has a special appeal. 
The construction is nearly always honest and logical. There is no 
attempt at hiding inferior wood under veneers or deceptions of a like 
nature. If I were asked to define perfect construction in furniture, 
I should lay it down as a first principle that a piece should be put to- 
gether without the aid of glue. My second condition would be that 
the particular article should be just as strong as it looks, neither more 
nor less. As a third, I should insist on the use of timber in boards 
or panels no wider than g or Io inches, as a precaution against splitting 
or warping. ‘Tudor and Stuart furniture would survive these con- 
ditions admirably; can we say the same of any of the furniture which 
succeeds it? 


CHARTER =X! 
MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 


% HILE this book does not profess to be a technical 
j/ treatise on English furniture, it is impossible for the 
} collector to take a really intelligent interest in so 
Waeens, characteristic a phase of the subject as marqueterie 
elas undoubtedly is, without some knowledge of the 
methods employed. 

The inlaying of the one wood in another is of extreme antiquity, 
possibly dating from Egyptian times. Inlay, however, is not neces- 
sarily marqueterie, and it is desirable here to define terms very con- 
cisely if confusion is to be avoided. It is possible to inlay pieces of 
wood (of contrasting colours, for obvious reasons) into solid timber. 
Some of the Stuart oak was inlaid in this fashion, as we have seen. A 
design was prepared, of which two or more exact copies were made 
(by a method which will be explained later), one pasted on to the 
pieces of veneer to be cut, the other to the ground which was to be 
inlaid. This ground was cut away with a pointed knife, driven along 
the lines of the design by blows from a small hammer, the wood then 
being removed, to veneer-depth, with chisels. If the two operations, 
the one of cutting the design with the saw, the other of grounding out 
the wood with knife and chisel, be accurately done, the inlay should 
fit perfectly. This is the Tudor and Stuart method, but it per- 
mitted of little advance in the art. It is, nevertheless, true inlaying. 

The second process is that of parqueterie. The most simple 
explanation of this is the making of a chess-board, with squares of 
alternately light and dark wood laid together and then glued down 


to a bed or ground. ‘That a chess-board is not made exactly in this 
213 


p Oy 
‘Al 
\ EB 


p = 
Wy 
iy) \ =~ l} 
hifi'« Qs y } 
~ nN 





214 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


way does not matter very much; it illustrates the method of par- 
queterie-work in a manner which will be comprehensible to the 
untechnical. 

With marqueterie, proper, we enter upon a much wider field. 
Whereas marqueterie is an inlay, yet it is incorrect to style inlay or 
parqueterie as marqueterie, for reasons which the following explana- 
tion will make clear. 

The marqueterie-cutter begins with a carefully drawn design as a 
basis of operations. This design is traced round with a needle (an 
apparatus similar in action to a sewing machine is used for the purpose), 
and is then known as a “ master-pricking.” If this “ pricking” be 
laid down on a sheet of white paper, and beaten with a “ pounce,” 
(bitumen powder tied up in a rag through the pores of which the 
powder will escape if the “‘ pounce” be used hammer-fashion), the 
design will be transferred to the paper beneath, in a series of finely 
dotted lines, through the holes in the “‘ master-pricking.” If this 
second pattern be laid on a metal plate, placed over a gas ring (the 
plate must not be too hot, or the paper will scorch), the design will be 
burnt in, permanently, and cannot be rubbed off, as it otherwise 
would be. 

A series of copies are taken in this way and cut into portions, 
according to the pieces of different coloured woods required for the 
work. Marqueterie is usually cut in several layers, from six to 
eight in number, the two outside veneers being discarded, as on 
them the saw-cut has a tendency to “rag” or splinter. For these 
‘* outside cuts,” therefore, common wood is generally used. If the 
pattern be simply one of dark wood on a light ground, or vice versa, 
then two cuttings only are necessary. By a method which was 
practised in the later phases of English marqueterie, both ground and 
inlay were cut in the one operation. ‘This should be clear from the 
following description. ‘Take two sheets of paper, black and white 
for convenience, and paste the edges together to avoid slipping. Now 
trace a design on one of these sheets and cut round the lines, both 
papers at the one time, with a pair of scissors. The result, no matter how 
careless the cutting, will be that one black pattern will fit into a white 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 2ulas 


ground and one white design into the black sheet, and each exactly, 
as they were cut together. It will be seen, therefore, that if nothing 
is to be wasted, the one operation of cutting will produce two panels 
of inlay, one of which will be the counterpart of the other. It will be 
important to bear this explanation in mind, as we shall see original 
and counterpart in some of the examples illustrated in this chapter. 

If the inlay be of woods of various colours, the same method can 
still be adopted, as six veneers of different shades or tints can be cut 
at the one time, but here a considerable amount of waste will be 
inevitable, although this will be compensated by the saving of time 
which the cutting of the one pattern, several times, will entail, as 
compared with the cost of the wood only. If the two black and white 
sheets be reinforced by four others, say of blue, red, yellow, and green, 
and the six cut as before, it is only necessary to take the five inlay 
pieces (as distinct from the one ground layer) and to cut them into 
portions, according to the design, and an inlaid pattern of five 
different colours will be formed, each of which must fit exactly as 
before. If we cut the inlay in szv layers in one operation, and si 
sheets of the ground veneer at a second, both exactly from the one 
pattern, we can get six different results according to the colour 
counterchange. 

I have described and illustrated the whole method of marqueterie 
cutting, pricking, and shading in “ Early English Furniture and Wood- 
work.” It is therefore unnecessary to repeat this here, as those who 
are interested in technical details can refer to that book. 

It can be imagined that this method of cutting marqueterie in 
layers, at the one operation, would not be discovered in the early 
stages of the craft in England. We know that marqueterie is an 
older art in Holland than in this country, and many pieces were 
imported into England as early as the last years of the reign of 
Charles I]. The important point, however, for our present enquiry, 
is that a mere inspection of such pieces would not discover any such 
secret of manufacture, and even the presence of other examples, in 
actual counterpart, would also not disclose anything, as any workman 
would know that there must be a waste with each cutting, and the 


216 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


inlay wood of one might be used as the ground of another panel even 
if the two were cut separately. It is the simultaneous cutting of 
ground and inlay which would remain a secret. 

Let us examine, in the light of the foregoing explanation, the table 
shown here on the next page, which dates from the short reign of 
James IT. (1685-89). The jessamine flowers and leaves are in white and 
green-stained ivory, and, owing to the cost of this material and the 
impossibility of procuring it in large sheets, any practical man would 
know that each flower and leaf must have been cut separately from 
small pieces. ‘This is the earliest type of English marqueterie, and the 
methods which have been adopted show this unmistakably, beyond 
the possibility of a mere surmise. What this table lacks in develop- 
ment of method, however, it more than atones for in skill in crafts- 
manship. ‘To veneer the turned legs with a plain veneer is a task of 
some difficulty, but this is simple compared with a problem of bending 
an inlay of brittle ivory cut into the same veneer. It is only possible 
to secure the necessary pliability by long immersion in strong vinegar 
or acetic acid. This table is interesting in possessing its original 
escutcheon and key, both of silver, the bow of the key designed with a 
double-Q interlaced, and surmounted by a baron’s crown. Although 
obviously made to a special order, its original owner is unknown. 

Major Holden has allowed me to photograph several pieces of 
English marqueterie, from his collection, in illustration of this chapter. 
They all date from the best—perhaps not the rarest—period, from 
1695 to 1705, when the art had reached its full artistic development, 
and yet had not become mannered or depraved in the direction in 
which all fashions tend after a time. Technically, it is the latest 
fashion of all, the fine scrolled marqueterie, which is the most perfect, 
but when an inlay. of one wood in another, approaches, in delicacy, 
the work of the engraver’s tool, there can be little merit remaining. 
One can admire the exquisite craftsmanship as such, yet regret that 
so large an amount of time and labour was wasted on so ineffective 
a result. 

Nowhere in the history of English furniture is the difference 
between seeing and observing more marked than in the case of 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 7, 





Table Inlaid with Marqueterie of Various Woods and White and Green-Stained Ivory, 
¢. 1685 89. 


218 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


marqueterie, lacquer-work, perhaps, only excepted. Observation 
implies culture and a knowledge of processes; it must be both intelli- 
gent and educated. ‘The microscopic slides of the bacteriologist will 
teach nothing to those whose eyes have not been trained—who do not 
know what to look for. Place a hundred watch-movements on a tray, 
and one whose knowledge of a watch is only that of a piece of gold or 
silver-cased mechanism which is carried in the pocket, to indicate the 
time, will see only superficial differences which mean little or nothing 
to him. If he apprentice himself to a watchmaker for a few years, 
and acquire a knowledge of the principles of, and the various inven- 
tions in, horology, all these differences will acquire a new meaning; 
he will be looking at them with the same eyes, but fortified with 
intelligence, a knowledge of principles and methods. If I were 
disposed to give advice to collectors, as a body, I should place this 
first: learn to know how the thing is made before you “collect” it; 
of what materials it is composed, and their nature; and as much of the 
evolutionary history of its production as possible. Only by these 
means can collecting be intellectually profitable. Even the schoolboy 
learns geography from his postage-stamp collection—in fact, there is 
no better method of teaching young people than through the medium 
of hobbies. 

Let us consider the table-top on the next page as an example of the 
distinction between seeing and observing. It has a central oval panel 
with an inlaid border, beyond which is a design suggestive of inter- 
lacing, formed by the use of cross-banded rosewood edged with ivory 
lines. By this “ strapping ”’ twelve panels, in three series of four each, 
are formed. ‘The inlay of the central oval represents a vase of flowers, 
of unbalanced design, so while we do not know what counterparts 
may exist of this panel, each piece of the inlay must have been sepa- 
rately cut and put together without duplication. The outer inlaid 
border to this oval consists of four motives, each of three scrolls, and 
if this border could be cut into four equal sections, each would 
correspond exactly. This means that the border could be cut in four 
quarters or thicknesses, at one operation, and the four layers, placed 
edge to edge, would produce the design here. Now there are saw- 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE BAe 


cuts, partly hidden by rosettes at the junctions, showing that the 
border was cut just in this way, to economise labour. It will also 
be noticed that the four rosettes are counterparts of each other. 
Similarly with the four panels immediately beyond, some of the pieces 
which compose the pattern are counterparts of others, yet each panel 
varies from its fellows in actual drawing. In the remaining eight 
panels some of the details in one will be noticed, in counterpart, in 
others, the idea being to attain the greatest variety by the most 
economical means. A marqueterie cutter, after examining this top 
carefully, could state that at least three others were made at the 
same time. I am referring only to the marqueterie itself, of course, 
as whether it was used on other tables, or for cabinets, or not at all, 
no one could possibly say. 





Marqueterie Table-Top Edged with Ebony and Ivory, c. 1680. 


With this possibility of the duplication of parts, so that many pieces 
could be cut or formed at the one operation, the cabinet on page 220, 
where the detail is shown very clearly, may be given as a test piece. 


220 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


The workman who had to consider time and expense would seize 
any opportunity of shortening his task by any duplicating method. 
The cabinet itself is a very interesting piece, full of the inspiration 
of Holland of about 1700-1705, and shows remarkable ingenuity in the 
use of “‘ oyster-pieces ’’—cross-sections from small boughs, generally 





2 

ve 
a 
e 
=: 


Cabinet Veneered with Walnut Oyster-Pieces and Inlaid with Marqueterie, c. 1685. 
(Major Norman Holden.) 


of walnut or laburnum. Being cut across the branch—that is, on 
“end-grain”’—these “ oyster-pieces” are exceedingly brittle and 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE ZO 


6 ? 


require great care in gluing, as “ end-grain”’? wood does not adhere 
firmly unless it is well sized or prepared by other means. 

Cabinets of the type of the one on this page are so numerous, 
comparatively, that they must not only have been made in considerable 


numbers, but also over an extended period. It is usual to refer them 








Marqueterie Cabinet on Stand, c. 1680-85. (Major Norman Holden.) 


to the later period of the reign of Charles II., which may be true of 
this example, but is too early for others. Here the white and stained 


222 THE OLDIVORLDIHOUSE 




















Marqueterie Cabinet on Chest of Drawers. The Plinth is not Original ; c. 1690. 
(Major Norman Holden.) 


pieces of ivory, as in the table on page 217, areused. ‘The banding on 
the fronts of the doors is formed by sections of cross-cut walnut 
saplings. ‘The four panels surrounding the central oval are in two 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 28 


pairs, each one with marqueterie in partial counterpart of the other. 
These cabinets on their spiral-leg stands-are, perhaps, the most 
decorative of all the pieces produced during this marqueterie period, 
being nearly always good both in proportion and detail. 

‘The double-doored marqueterie cabinet on a chest, with a lower 
part fitted with drawers, is the next phase of this type. ‘Two examples 





Marqueterie Cabinet on Chest of Drawers, c. 1690-95. (Major Norman Holden.) 


are given above and on the previous page. The first has the usual 
cushion-moulded frieze, which remains a familiar feature in these 


224 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 
English cabinets for upwards of fifty years. ‘The second has a simple 


cornice (somewhat marred by the square fillet above, which is a later 
addition), and is without a 
frieze.- The evolution, in the 
designing of this early marque- 
terie, can be traced in these two 
cabinets very closely. There is 
better spacing, and a more 
decorative sense of design in 
the second than in the first. 
The very charming mar- 
queterie mirror on this page 
also belongs to this late Stuart 
period, if not’ to themeqra 
years of William III. These 
mirrors are rare and costly 
pieces, but their decorative 
value is very great, alike in 
oak-panelled rooms, or in those 
of the later period wainscotted 
with painted deal. That the 
idea of these frames of quarter- 
round section is an inspiration 
Marqueterie Mirror Frame, c. 1685-90. from Holland 95 
(Major Norman Holden.) probable, yet the Dutch 
mirror frame is quite distinct 
from its English fellow. Sometimes these frames are veneered with 
simple cross-grained walnut; occasionally they are lacquered. They 
appear to have possessed an original cresting in nearly every instance, 
although accident or faulty construction has often resulted in its 
loss. In the marqueterie mirrors, which are, perhaps, the rarest of 
all, the inlaid patterns often exhibit strong Dutch character, such as 
the representation of a hunting scene in the central circle of the 
pediment of the exceptional mirror shown here on the next page. The 
marqueterie is of the early fashion of jessamine leaves and flowers in 





MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 225 





Marqueterie Mirror Frame Inlaid with Various Coloured Woods and White and Stained 
Lvory, -¢. 1675. 


226 


Marqueterie Cabinet Inlaid with the Arms of Bowes-Lyon 
and Blakiston, c. 1700. 
(C. H. F, Kinderman, Esq.) 


THE OL DIWVORED HOUSE 





white and stained 
ivory in conjunction 
with other floral 
forms and birds, all 
beautifully cut with- 
out engraving or sand- 
burning. 

The remarkable 
cabinet, two views of 
which, open and 
closed, are shown on 
this and the next page, 
is one of those excep- 
tional pieces which 
are encountered, here 
and there, throughout 
the entire history of 
English furniture. It 
appears to have been 
a  custOm, mate 
periods, to =make 
special furniture to 
commemorate an 
event, penerally aa 
marriage. In the late 
Tudor or early Stuart 
periods, when linen 
was a valuable posses- 
sion, Chests swere 
sometimes made for 
a female child, in- 
scribed with the name 
and date ot birth 
In such as piccemes 
proportion of the 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 227, 





The Cabinet on Page 226 Shown Open. 


228 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


linen or other fabrics woven by the household would be placed, from 
time to time, to accumulate until the child grew up to marriageable 
age. ‘This was the true “‘ dower chest,” although the name has since 
been applied, indiscriminately, to coffers which could not have had any 
such purpose. I have also seen a fine wardrobe with a fretted 
pediment, into the design of which were incorporated the initials J. B. 
and §. B. and the date 1773. On page 42 is illustratedsa pane ied 
room from Barnstaple with P. D. and E. D. above the mantel, in 
remembrance of Pentecost and Elizabeth Doddridge and their mar- 
riage in 1617. 

With furniture made for the nobility or the landed gentry, the 
coats of arms of each family would be used instead of vague initials. 
In this cabinet, or linen press, the two front doors have the arms of 
Bowes and Blakiston inlaid in the panels. Formerly at Streatlam 
Castle, Darlington, Co. Durham, a seat of the Earl of Strathmore 
and Kinghorne, there is little doubt that the shield on the left-hand 
door is inlaid with the arms of his family, Bowes-Lyon. These are, 
in full, ** ermine, three longbows bent in pale, gules, stringed or, on a 
chief azure. A swan argent, holding in the beak a dish with a 
covered cup in it, between two leopards’ heads, or. Crest, a demi- 
leopard, guardant, gules, holding between the paws a bundle of 
arrows, or, barbed argent, and banded with a ribbon, azure.” This 
bundle of arrows is shown in the pediment of the cabinet here, although 
not according to the manner of heraldry. 

The Blakiston arms are now borne by the family of Blakiston- 
Houston of Orangefield and Roddens, Co. Down, Ireland. I have 
been unable to discover a record of any union by marriage between 
the two families of Bowes and Blakiston. ‘There is an extinct Irish 
barony, Bowes of Clonlyon (1758-1767) which, by a curious coin- 
cidence, has not only a similar name to that of the family of the Earl 
of Strathmore, but also possessed a coat of arms, identical in many 
respects, namely, “‘ Ermine, three bows with strings palewise (per- 
pendicular) proper for Bowes,” but as this Irish peer was the first and 
last baron, and died a bachelor, the Bowes coat of arms here cannot be 
his, although, as far as they are shown on this cabinet, they agree exactly. 


229 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 





(Major Norman Holden.) 


Marqueterie Hanging Cupboard, c. 1695. 


230 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


The Blakiston arms are: “‘ Quarterly, 1 and 4, or, a chevron chequey 
or, sable, and argent between three martlets of the second, 2 and 3, two 
bars and in chief 3 cocks gules, an annulet, azure, for difference (for 
Blakiston) mantling sable and or; and crests (1) upon a wreath of the 
colours, a sand-glass proper, (2) upon a wreath of the colours, a cock 
statant gules charged with an annulet, or.’ Motto, “ Do well and 
doubt not.” 

There is a curious implied reference to the Blakiston motto in the 
plant selected for the inlay of the lower drawers. ‘This is the cruci- 





Bureau Inlaid with Marqueterie of Walnut on a Ground of Almond-Tree, c. 1690. 
(Viscount Rothermere.) 


ferous genus Lunaria, the L. brennis, the leaves of which are often 
skinned and dried and then used as ornaments for vases. In this 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 231 





Cabinet Inlaid with Marqueterie of Walnut in Panels of Almond-Tree Surrounded by Walnut 
Oyster-Pieces, type of c. 1695-1700. (Viscount Rothermere.) 


22 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


dried state, where the inside leaf turns to a bright silver shade, the 
L. biennis is known in nearly all the country districts of England by 
the name of “ honesty.” here is a further significance, indicating 
a union by marriage, in the fact that the sprigs are suspended from 
true-lover’s knots. In the centre of the inside door is an elaborate 
monogram of the letters B. L. and D., evidently Bowes-Lyon of 
Darlington (or Durham), and Blakiston of Down. 

The veneers of the cabinet are a faded English walnut (so bleached 
by the action of light that the whole piece has a Dutch appearance) 
and a pollarded or burred yew-tree. The high pediment, with its 
intricate triple-mitring of the capping mouldings, also suggests the 
influence of Holland very strongly, yet the workmanship is entirely 
English, and the “ allusive”’ heraldry of the two names almost pre- 
cludes a foreign origin, a rebus, as this punning coat of arms is, having 
no significance in another language, and therefore not likely to 
be adopted by a foreign workman. ‘This is a remarkable cabinet 
in every way, in very good preservation, and very little restored. 
It may date from as late as the first years of the eighteenth century, 
but in the absence of any knowledge of the year of the Bowes- 
Blakiston marriage only an approximate period can be stated. 

For intricacy of design and cutting, the six panels on the front 
of the doors of the large hanging press, illustrated on page 229, may be 
said to mark the zenith of this finely coloured floral marqueterie in 
England. In spite of the cipher on the frieze and the base, this piece 
has been reconstructed, but the quality of the marqueterie, which 
is quite original, is superb. If English marqueterie could have main- 
tained a standard as high as this, then the work would have been 
incomparable and have defied any competition with that of Holland. 

During the latest phase, which may be said to coincide with the 
last semi-decade of the seventeenth century, marqueterie becomes 
quieter in tone and much more intricate and delicate in cutting. 
Apparently a much larger amount of labour was involved in the 
production of the finely scrolled ornament, such as on the bureau on 
page 230, where the inlay is of walnut in a ground of almond-tree, 
bordered with sand-shaded and laurelled bandings, and if we con- 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 233 


tek et AES RR hi A ER GAR 





Cabinet Inlaid with Scrolled Marqueterie of Holly on a Ground of Walnut, c 1700. 


234 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


sider such a piece by itself, this is true. The possibilities of exact 
counterpart, however, where corresponding panels of marqueterie, 
of light wood in a ground of walnut, are used for another piece, have 
to be considered, and if the whole of one “ cutting” were used in 
this way, there would be no waste of material whatever, and the time 
and trouble taken over this original marqueterie would be recom- 
pensed, if divided between four or six articles of furniture. That a 
counterpart of this marqueterie—if not several—existed at one time 
there can be little question. The cabinet, page 231, shows this scrolled 
marqueterie in panels, on a ground of walnut oyster-pieces, still of 
dark wood inlaid in a light-coloured one, whereas in the large secre- 
talre, page 233, we have the reverse, or counterpart, light holly in 
a ground of walnut burrs. 





Walnut Chair (Lower Part only) Inlaid with Marqueterie, c. 1695-1700. 
(C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


The two chairs, above and on the next page (the lower section only 
of the first is given to exhibit the detail to a reasonable scale), are illus- 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 20% 


trated to show how the fashion for marqueterie was applied, in very 
rare instances, to the decoration of such pieces. Chairs inlaid with 
marqueterie and of English origin, however, are exceedingly rare and 
valuable pieces. Although from quite different sources, both examples 
here have the “‘ goat-foot ” to the cabriole legs, a peculiar detail which 
enjoyed a transient popularity during the last years of the reign of 
William III. It is doubtful, however, if the chair on this page is not a 
later copy from the reign of George I., as the carving on the knees, 
although not very good in 
execution, indicates too ad- 
vanced a style for the earlier 
Penod itis an interesting 
chair, however, with its excep- 
tional form of cresting-rail and 
central splat, the latter inlaid 
with a device somewhat in the 
French manner, and sur- 
mounted by a coronet. The 
other chair is typical not only 
of English work, but also at its 
best. ‘The dawn of the cabriole 
era—that is, of the cabriole leg 
rounded in section, which 1s of 
eighteenth-century origin—can 
be traced in this model. 
Mebaves stated, in the pre- 
face to this book, the danger, 
if not the impossibility, of 
wiving) hints’? which are 
supposed to be of service to 


the collector in the detection Walnut Chair with Central Splat Inlaid with 


of “ fakes.” If there be such Marqueterie, c. 1695. (Major Norman 
; Holden.) 





a thing as degrees of the 
impossible, then the attempt to give such “ hints ” with regard to 
marqueterie furniture approaches the superlative. Let us consider 


236 THE OLDWORLD HOUSE 


the subject by stages of origin or nationality, quality of workmanship, 
methods employed, and surface condition. If there exist any clues 
to the detection of a forgery, which could be explained in a chapter 
such as this, and to the untechnical, they would be found in one or 
more of these categories. 

Origin or Nationality—The earliest marqueterie found in this 
country was of Dutch workmanship, undoubtedly ; the evidences 
for this are conclusive. Thus we find marqueterie used for cabinets 
or tables at the same period when crude oak cupboards, chairs, and 
tables, sometimes decorated with the chopped-in inlay, before referred 
to, were being made. I do not use the word ~ crude’ hereintany 
derogatory sense. Some of the later Stuart oak, from the view-points 
of vigour, spontaneity, and logical construction, is far in advance of 
any marqueterie furniture which was ever made. I am alluding 
rather to new and complicated methods of decoration, by the inlay 
of woods, one in another, in veneers, and the “laying” of these 
veneers with the press, caul, or veneering hammer. It is incredible 
that this fashion can have persisted (and we know how general it 
must have been from the number of marqueterie pieces which have 
survived) side by side with the plain Stuart oak, if both were of English 
origin, and contemporaneous. ‘There is another significant point. It 
is extremely rare to find marqueterie used for the decoration of chairs, 
and when we do find such examples, such as the one illustrated on 
the previous page, they always exhibit a strong Dutch character. Clock 
cases also bear out the same contention. ‘The mouldings of these, 
especially of the long cases of the so-called “‘ grandfather ” clocks, 
are always classical in section, and very delicate in detail. The same 
fashion also follows, after a few years, in the marqueterie furniture, 
such as cabinets and similar pieces, yet such sections are never found in 
typical Stuart oak. ‘This disparity can only be accounted for by a 
different school of workmen. A few years after, and we find these 
Dutch workmen coming across the North Sea, in the train of the 
Stadtholder, and settling in London, the Home Counties, and especi- 
ally in Norfolk and Suffolk. From these localities nearly all this 


elaborate marqueterie furniture originates. 


MARQUETERIE FURNITURE 237. 


Quality of Workmanship.—lf one could say, with even an approxi- 
mation to the truth, that the old cutting was more exact, better in 
drawing, or more spirited in execution, than the modern “ fake,” the 
problem of the detection of the latter might be considerably simplified. 
I will not say that the opposite of this is the fact, but it is certainly 
nearer the truth. The old marqueterie varies from the extremely 
fine to the incredibly coarse; from the well-chosen selection of veneers, 
either in natural or dyed colours, to the utterly incongruous, and from 
exact cutting to other work unworthy of an apprentice in a modern 
marqueterie cutter’s workshop. A little thought will show that this 
must be so. For some pieces, in the original instance, a high price 
must have been paid; for others there is evidence of cheap work in 


every line and detail. his furniture had no “ ; 


Seniique; Or rarity 
value at the time when it was made. At the present day the price 
paid for so-called “* original” pieces is immensely higher than the cost 
of making. Knowing this, why should not the “ faker” do his best— 
or worst—with his copies, use all his skill, and devote adequate time 
to their production? Of his ability there is no question. Cabinet- 
makers, marqueterie cutters, and lacquer workers exist at the present 
day fully equal, in technical skill, to any of the old makers, and they 
have, in addition, the advantages of modern education, tradition, 
easy and cheap transport, museums, books of reference, photography, 
and a thousand advantages which the Stuart worker did not possess. 
It is a doubtful compliment, to both, to vaunt the seventeenth- 
century workmen at the expense of their brethren of the present day. 
We are dealing with craftsmanship which is evolutionary and pro- 
gressive, not with that sport of nature or heredity, the creative genius. 

Methods Employed—TVhe method of cutting fine marqueterie 
(I am omitting any reference here to the modern cutting machine, 
something like a hybrid between the fret-saw and the sewing machine, 
as it is never used for really good work) does not differ, in any way, 
from the original manner of the late seventeenth century. Methods, 
therefore, are no indication of antiquity. ‘The same veneers and dyed 
woods, or white or green-stained ivories, are also used, so there 1s no 
elgemo ine detection of. ° fakes?” here. 


238 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Surface Condition—I do not think there is one piece of late 
seventeenth or early eighteenth century marqueterie in existence 
which has not been restored or resurfaced at some time or another. 
Veneering is not permanent in the sense that Tudor or Stuart oak is; 
veneers will blister, and pieces of inlay become loose and require 
attention, and you cannot relay any veneers or inlay without glue 
and the hot caul, and the heat which must be used will render some 
resurfacing imperative. It is the merest ignorant nonsense to talk 
about “‘ original condition ’’ where English marqueterie is concerned 
if the use of this term imply that the piece has not been restored in any 
way since it was made. 

In view of the foregoing, the question whether anyone can tell 
the difference between original marqueterie and reproductions or 
** fakes” becomes a very pertinent one. The answer is, thatwastecne 
nical expert can, for the one reason, that while the “ faker” can 
duplicate the old patterns and veneers, he cannot satisfactorily imitate 
age. ‘Time is against him; he has to produce the result of a couple 
of centuries of wear in as many months, and this he cannot do. He 
must use bleaches and caustics and other noticeable means, and the 
presence of these can always be detected by one whose eye is trained 
to observe. ‘To describe these signs of faking, especially to the un- 
technical, is hopeless; one might as well ask a leading surgeon to write 
a pamphlet entitled “ Every Man his own Operator,” or a physician 
to expound the treatment of obscure diseases for the guidance of the 
Sman imetive street. 


CHAPTER XII 
LACQUER WORK 


Poe HERE is, perhaps, no branch of antique furniture 
‘SH where Sreater. discrimination, 1s “required than 
that of lacquer work—that is, if the furnishing 
of the Old-World House is to be successful. It is 
not that good lacquered pieces are undecorative 
in themselves—in fact, the best examples are both 
charming and artistic in the highest degree—but with lacquer, prob- 
ably more than with any other furniture, it is so easy to overdo the 
thing, especially in the house of modest size, such as our Old-World 
House is to be. I have seen rooms in which everything—wall- 
panellings, chimney-pieces, and furniture—was lacquered, but I have 
never known such a room, whether large or small, to be even 
approximately satisfactory. It is the old story, that “one can have 
too much even of a good thing.” 

I have purposely used the term “lacquer” in the wrong sense 
in the foregoing, as the name is so popularly employed to describe 
not only a groundwork (which is the true lacquer), but also the 
ornament which is applied on, or incised in, such ground. I have 
done so in order to arrive at the meaning of that which I wish to express 
in the shortest space possible. ‘To begin with a simple caution, and 
then to hedge it round with a number of technical phrases and 
reservations, in order to be scrupulously exact, is only to render 
obscure that which should be quite clear. 

A few lacquered pieces, preferably black or cream, can be used 
with advantage even in a small room, in order to achieve that variety 
in effect which has been insisted upon so often in these pages. With 

239 





240 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


other colours, such as red, green, or blue, one has to be exceedingly 
careful. So much depends upon the size of the piece or the room 
in which it is to be placed, and also upon the brightness or quality 





The Two Halves of a Twelve-Fold Screen of 


of the particular colour. Thus there are fine and bad reds, yet the 
good colour is not necessarily the most subdued. Green lacquer 


LACQUER WORK 241 


should be green, if it is to be entertained at all, not a rusty black 
masquerading asagreen. Blue lacquer we can disregard for the present 
purpose, as, in antique pieces, it is so rare as to be almost non-existent. 








Chinese Lacquer. (C.H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


Out of the thousands of pieces of lacquer which I have seen, during 


some thirty years, I have only known of two examples of genuinely 
I 16 


24.2 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 
old blue lacquer. On the other hand, I have known of hundreds of 


fakes, some of which were really clever imitations. With buff or cream 
lacquer it is difficult for anyone with taste to go wrong—that is, always 
supposing that the piece itself, in size or form, is suitable for the room 
in which it is to be placed. 

Lacquered furniture can be divided, broadly, into two classes. To 
the first belong those pieces which have been made, specifically, for 
such decoration (the familiar square cabinets on gilded stands of 
carved wood are examples of this type); in the second, we can place 
those articles of furniture where the lacquering is merely by way of 
adventitious ornament, a substitution for veneering or polishing of 
the natural wood. 

To the last of these two categories belong nearly all the lacquered 
pieces subsequent to about 1710-15. With the first of the two 
classes just stated, one feels that lacquering is an inevitable concomi- 
tant to the design and general form, whereas with the second it is 
merely an optional matter. 

To enter into a technical description of the processes of lacquer- 
ing would be to carry this book far beyond its proper scope. ‘That 
the art of the lacquer worker originates in China is unquestionable, 
although it permeated into Japan at a much earlier period than is 
generally suspected. In both countries the lacquer (the word is 
used here in its true sense—namely, a ground-coating, which may be 
ornamented or left quite plain) is a viscid gum from a native tree, tsi, 
the Rhus vernicifera, a variety of the sumach. This gum, when 
exuded, hardens on exposure to the air, and when dry, is insoluble by 
any agents known to us, even one as drastic as pure alcohol, which 
will attack any European varnishes almost at once. 

The true Oriental lacquer being, therefore, unaffected by those 
conditions which would cause any Western varnishes to decay or 
perish, acts as a very efficient preservation to any wood panel on which 
it is applied, providing such application be thorough, and all atmo- 
sphere excluded from flat surfaces and edges. So convinced is the 
Oriental of the air-excluding qualities of his lacquer that he does not 
hesitate to make his pieces from a soft white wood, very much akin 


LACQUER WORK 24.3 





Oriental (Fapanese ?) Cabinet. Gold Decoration on a Black Ground. 
(Major Norman Holden.) 


244 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


to our fir or pine, which, unprotected, would fall to pieces in a few 
years. Yet when this Chinese or Japanese lacquer is kept in a perfect 
state—that is, not allowed to become chipped—it will withstand the 
extremes of the climate of the Eastern States of America, which may 
be regarded as by far the most severe test in the whole of the civilised 
world. Brittle as the true Chinese lacquer is, it is incredible how 
long some of it has persisted. The large screens, which were among 
the first pieces which appear in the manifests of the East India 
Company’s tea ships, and which are comparatively numerous both 
in Europe and Eastern America, are known to date, in some instances, 
from the latter part of the Ming Dynasty—that is, prior to 1643. 
Asia is the home of marvels of craftsmanship, from the points of 
view both of artistic workmanship and persisting qualities. Lacquered 
cabinets and screens were, after all, made to be used very tenderly, 
but rugs and carpets were made to be walked upon, perhaps not by 
Western boots, and certainly not by those decorated with hobnails; 
yet carpets are known which date from the fifteenth century at least, 
and are still in a state of good preservation. 

To describe lacquer work, in anything like fulness of detail, would 
demand, not a chapter or a book, but a library. We can resolve the 
subject into one of nationality, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Persian, 
Indian, Dutch, French or English, and each of these into further sub- 
classes according to periods, such as the Chinese from Ming, and 
Manchu—K’hang Hsi or Ch’ien Lung—down to modern times. 
Another classification would differentiate between the lac of Pekin, 
Canton, Foochow, and Amoy. Yet a third would separate the colours, 
black, red, yellow, or green; another would divide the carved lac of 
Foochow (the well-known cinnabar often erroneously styled “ coral- 
line ’’) from the incised or “‘Coromandel.” Yet a fifth order could be 
made of the simple raised and gilded gesso ornament, as distinguished 
from the polychromatic. So varied is the work of China, in this 
field alone, that further classifications would have to be adopted, from 
time to time, almost with each fresh discovery. With countries such 
as Japan, Persia or India, the work of division would be almost as 
complicated, and the knowledge necessary for this task is possessed 


LACQUER WORK 245 





Cabinet of Black-and-Gold English Lacquer on Carved Stand formerly Silvered and Glazed. 
(C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


246 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


by no single living man, and probably by no group of individuals, no 
matter how large. How many lifetimes the ideal work would demand 
can be only dimly imagined. One thing is certain. The full history 
of lacquer work will never be written, or even adequately attempted. 

Our concern with lacquer work here can only be of the briefest 
character—that is, only as far as lacquered pieces enter into the fur- 
nishing of the Old-World House. In the hands of those endowed 
with taste, lacquer is a valuable adjunct in the making of the success- 
ful home; in certain rooms, and used without discretion, it can ruin the 
most effective decorative scheme. As a background, especially in 
large rooms, nothing is better than the fine Chinese screens similar 
to the one illustrated here on pages 240 and 241. Proportions are 
important, of course, and many of these screens demand a room of at 
least 12 feet in height. It is just this question of proportion which 
makes the distinction between furniture and lumber, or between 
a properly furnished room and the average dealer’s shop. 

Oriental lacquered furniture (that is, those pieces made for Chinese 
or Japanese use) is rarely satisfactory in an English home. ‘This does 
not apply to those exceptional pieces which were sent out in the tea 
ships to be lacquered in China, as they were designed and made 
according to Western ideas. ‘The same may be said of others which, 
though made in China or Japan, were intended, at the outset, for the 
European market. In the latter, however, there is present the in- 
dications of failure on the part of the Oriental to appreciate European 
conditions. Thus, the cabinet shown here on page 243 is well made, 
and the lacquer work is of high quality, but it is not a satisfactory 
piece of furniture for an English room. The decoration, however, 
is finely executed and full of interest. 

One point may be stated here with regard to Japanese furniture. 
Unlike the Chinaman, who sits on a chair, the Japanese sit on the floor. 
Their eye-level, therefore, in their homes, is some 3 feet lower than 
that of the Chinaman. The Japanese square cabinet is a box with 
doors, behind which are a series of drawers, on a squat plinth, some- 
times cut out in bracket form, usually not more than 3 inches in height. 
These cabinets were made to stand on a floor, their height not more 


LACQUER WORK 247 





Square Cabinet of Incised Polychromatic Lacquer on Carved Gilt Stand. English 
Workmanship. (C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


248 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


than that of an average English table. In this country it became a 
fashion to mount these cabinets on carved gilded stands, in the same 
way as with the Chinese cabinets in the reign of Charles II. The 
quality of Japanese work of the eighteenth century is very high. The 
lacquer grounds are often exceedingly good, even superior to those of 
China, as the Japanese artists were wonderful imitators at this period. 
The point which the collector should observe, however, is that these 
Japanese cabinets are neither as rare nor as valuable as those of Chinese 
workmanship, yet as the work is unmistakably Oriental, and often 
of fine quality, they are often sold as Chinese. If the cabinet has 
this cut-out bracket plinth it can be recognised as Japanese at once, 
and its value properly assessed. If the plinth be absent, it is advisable 
to look at the under side to see if it has been cut away. It must not 
be imagined that a square cabinet of Oriental lacquer is necessarily 
Chinese if it have no such base, or any signs of one having existed, but 
the presence of the bracket plinth can be accepted as a certain in- 
dication of Japanese origin. One of these Japanese lacquer cabinets 
on gilded stand is illustrated in Fig. 503 of “ Early English Furniture 
and Woodwork.” 

Square cabinets of Chinese make are exceedingly rare in this coun- 
try, although some have been made from portions of Chinese screens 
cut up for the purpose. It is to be presumed that screens damaged 
beyond repair were used in this way. That this method of making 
cabinets is an old one, in England, is shown by the reference in the 
folio of Stalker and Parker, dated 1688, where these “ professors ”’ 
of the art of “ lackering” refer, in scornful terms, tomtiepise ie 
Similar cabinets—that is, of square form, mounted on carved and 
gilded stands, of English workmanship throughout—must have been 
made in considerable numbers here between the years 1665 to 
about 1700. After the latter date the fashion became general) or 
taking the prevailing models of the walnut period, bureau bookcases 
and similar pieces, and lacquering them as an alternative to veneering 
or inlaying with marqueterie. 

Of these English square cabinets on gilt stands two examples are 
given on pages 245 and 247. ‘The first has a decoration of cranes in 


LACQUER WORK 249 


Ot ee, a 





Corner Cupboard of Black-and-Gold English Lacquer of Exceptional Quality. 
(Major Norman Holden.) 


250 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


well-raised gilded gesso on a fine black ground. ‘The stand has 
suffered somewhat, pieces of board being fixed behind the pierced 
work, presumably for strength, which mar the effect intended by the 
open cutting. ‘These stands were never gilded in Stuart times, the 
usual practice being to silver them, and to imitate gilding by the appli- 
cation of yellow varnishes. Unfortunately it is only within recent 
years that this original method has been recognised, with the result 
that nearly all these varnishes have been stripped, regarded prob- 
ably as later applications. The silver thus exposed is somewhat 
cold and garish, and a later “ improvement” was to paint over the 
silver with brown bitumen varnish, which has since turned opaque 
and now looks like common brown paint. Many of the eighteenth- 
century mirror frames have been treated in the same way, probably 
at the same period when the stand of this cabinet suffered from the 
same process of “‘ renovation.” The other example shown here is 
in a better state, and is considerably later, of about the reign of 
George I. Here the lacquer work is polychromatic and incised in 
the ground. The cabinet has a carved cresting, a feature which 
became very general after about 1710. 

In buying cabinets of this kind, special attention should be paid to 
condition (they are expensive things to restore), quality of the lacquer 
decoration (this may vary from the extremely fine, well-drawn, and 
“raised,” down to a mere daubing, and both extremes may be per- 
fectly genuine work of the period), and, last but by no means least, 
to the quality of the brasswork, the hinges and lock-plates. These 
should be pierced and finely engraved, in the best examples. Solid 
plates—that is, unpierced—are seldom found on cabinets of otherwise 
high quality. There is always the possibility that the original hinges 
may have perished and have been replaced. Brass, as we all know, 
is not one of the permanent metals, although many of these hinges 
and lock-plates were originally gilded, as a preservative against 
corrosion. 

As English lacquer work varies from the fine to the exceedingly 
mediocre, it is advisable to defer purchasing until really good speci- 
mens can be acquired. Mere antiquity is no excuse for rubbish. 


LACQUER WORK 2a 





Bureau Bookcase in Cream Lacquer with Strong Dutch Influence. 


ae, THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Unfortunately the quality of lacquer depends very much on its con- 
dition, and to the collector, the modern work (shall we say the fake ?) 
will often appeal, especially if he cannot tell the genuine from the 
spurious. Against frankly modern lacquer I have nothing to say, 
providing it be well done, fine in drawing and execution. The 
fake is in a different category altogether. ‘To give a fictitious 
appearance of age the faker has to undermine the constitution 
of his work, to use the familiar phrase. He has to crack his 
varnishes, blister his grounds, and often wilfully maltreat his pieces 
to satisfy clients who will have 
everything old, or, to be polite, 
“antique.” By such means hess 
shortening the effective life of his 
work very materially. One of the 
best tests, in the detection of faked 
lacquer or marqueterie, is to send 
the piece out to the Eastern States 
of America. A New York winter, 
followed by a summer, will settle 
the matter better than the greatest 
expert. It should be stated, how- 
ever, that the same conditions will 
expose any restorations in the same 
way, even when honestly done, so 
the expert can be re-employed in 
postulating the distinction between 
" and aalinoss 


‘* restoration ” 
Shortly after 17e0;@ulacques 
decoration becomes merely an alter- 
native finish to veneering. ‘That is 
wars where our friend the faker is so 

ete Kinlerney bay ‘fortunately circumstanced. Know- 
ing that it is possible to find 

original pieces—bureau bookcases, for example—similar in form, of 
which one has been veneered with walnut and another decorated 





LACQUER WORK 253 


in lacquer, he takes perfectly genuine old cabinets which have lost 
their veneer in too many places to make it commercially possible 
to replace it, and he gives them a new lease of life as lacquered pieces. 
Fortunately for the expert, while many of these “ restored” pieces 
are cleverly done, oil varnishes take a considerable time to get 
thoroughly hard, a matter of years rather than weeks, and the faker 
being in a hurry, uses spirit varnishes or even shellac polishes. 
With the average man this will pass; I know it is accepted 
as satisfactory in high legal circles, so there is nothing more 
to be said, After all, high authority is everything in these days. 
Of this eighteenth-century 
lacquer it is useless to illustrate 
many examples. Pictorially, especi- 
ally by monochrome processes, 
they merely duplicate the walnut 
or mahogany furniture of the same 
period. The corner cupboard 
shown here on page 249 is an 
exception by reason of its remark- 
able quality. I have never seen a 
finer specimen of black-and-gold 
lacquer, of English workmanship, 
than this piece. It has suffered 
somewhat from warping, but has 
been very little restored. English 
lacquer approaching the Oriental 
in quality is excessively rare, it is 
hardly necessary to say. 
Pisecutious: tiat® lacquered 
cabinets of the best quality usually 
show strong Dutch influence. The 
cream lacquer bureau cabinet illus- 
trated on page 251 is an example 
of this. The arching of the pediment, the ornamental hinging of the 
doors, the separate character of the bureau with its three small drawers 





Bureau Cabinet in Dark Green Lacquer. 


254. THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


placed on the lower carcase with a large moulding between, and the 
fragment of the cut-out plinth which remains, all suggest the 
Netherlands rather than England. It must be remembered, as we 
saw in the case of marqueterie furniture, that this was a period when 
the arts of the two countries, England and Holland, were very closely 
associated, so much so, in fact, that it is often impossible to 
differentiate between the work of Holland and that of Dutch artisans 
settled in this country. Here, obviously, the clue which the choice 
of woods might afford, is absent. 

The two bureau cabinets on pages 252 and 253 follow the prevailing 





A Lacquered Triple-Top Games Table, Open. (C,H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


fashions of their time, and require no detailed explanation here. 
Both date from the latter years of the reign of Anne. 
The incidental character of much of this later lacquer is well 


LACQUER WORK 255 


illustrated by the table and chair with which this chapter concludes. 
The first is a triple-top card table; perhaps it would be more correct 
to describe it as a combination of a games and writing table. It has 
the well-fashioned cabriole leg of the best period of Queen Anne, 
straight on the inside faces, as a good English cabriole leg should be. 
Tables of this kind, where a box is pushed downwards against the force 
of a spring, and flies upwards when a catch releases it, were known by 





The Same Table with the Box Raised. Pieces of this kind were known as “ [Harlequin ” 
Tables. 


the name of “harlequin” in books and inventories of the time. The 
origin of the appellation can be easily surmised. 
The last illustration here is a chair, of the usual type of the reign 


250 THE OLDIWORED HOUSE 


of Anne, decorated with lacquer. It is one indication of the separate 
character of the trades of the cabinet-maker and the chair-maker— 
of which I shall have more to 
say at a later stage of this book 
—that while the fashion for 
lacquer became very general 
with furniture, it is very 
exceptional to find chairs 
decorated in this way. Chairs 
at this period were often made 
in sets of six or more. I have 
only seen one set of lacquered 
chairs in my life, and I had 
reason then to suspect that 
some! of the set™ had been 
made up to match, atea later 
date. 

In this instance, however, 
there 1s) gan) Soricinal== and 
magnificent set of eighteen, 
complete, of the one period, 
and apart from some necessary 
restoration, in wonderful con- 
dition. The ground is 
somewhat dull green, with a 4 lt of Quer ine Pred Draated wi 
raised, gilded gesso decoration. Eighteen. (Agustin Edwards, Esq.) 

It” 1s: ‘curious -that;sucman 
exceptional set should be found in the heart of fashionable London, 
although on what is, technically, Chilean territory. 

English furniture bristles with problems. It is not only what the 
collector observes that puzzles him; if he be an acute observer, it is 
often the absence of a certain type—what he does not see, in short— 
which is the greatest conundrum of all. We shall notice some more 
puzzles at a later stage, and some which appear to defy solution. 





GHA Eb ie Rex TIT 
WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 


Poe HE popularity of walnut, in place of the oak which 
'} was the national furniture timber of England for so 
many centuries, dates from the early Restoration 
years. ‘he wood is used for chairs as early as 1660-65, 
* but in furniture, especially those pieces where the 
scantling is large, or where it is employed in the form 
of veneers, it is rare before about 1690-95. Small tables, generally 
with spiral-turned legs and with veneered tops, are to be found which 
date, apparently, from the early years of the reign of Charles II., 
but the solid wood is never of any size, and the veneers have the 
appearance of being foreign, of Dutch or Flemish origin. 

Apart from the fact that after 1660 there are many evidences to 
show that chair-making became a distinct trade from that of the 
joiner—to which further reference will be made at a later stage—there 
are other reasons why walnut was adopted for chairs and small tables 
long before it was used for larger pieces. A brief investigation into 
the history and properties of the timber itself may yield some informa- 
tion on this point. Walnut is one of several fine trees of the natural 
order Juglandacee. The so-called English walnut, ‘/uglans regia, is a 
native of Persia and the Himalayas. Some botanists aver that it was 
introduced into England by the Earl of Pembroke, in the sixteenth 
century, and first planted at Wilton Park; others state that it was known 
in this country as early as the Roman occupation. It is certain that 
much of the walnut used for chairs in the early Restoration years 
was immature timber, almost of sapling growth, and from this we 
might infer that walnut-trees had not reached maturity, in England, 

I 257 LUA 





258 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


as late as 1660. [here may be other reasons, however, why 
this sapling wood was used. The walnut is, primarily, a fruit- 
tree, and would be maintained 
principally for its nut-bearing 
properties, and for certain 





medicinal virtues —among 
others the treatment of scrofula 
—which its leaves were 
supposed to possess. Such 
trees would only become 
valuable for timber after the | 
nut-bearing stage had passed. | 
Before the timber could be | 
used, there was the felling 
Of (the trees them sawing intous 
boards, and the problem of 
seasoning, all to be reckoned 
with, and this trouble taken 
to replace a wood such as 
oak, the properties of which 














Oak Chair. The Cromwellian Type with 
were known and had been Hide Seat and Back, c. 1650. 


tested for generations, by one 

which was utterly unknown. In addition, the walnut must have 
been a rare tree, when compared with the oak; it is so even at the 
present day, although it was planted extensively during the late 
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and again after the 
Napoleonic wars. 

Fruit woods, apple, pear, almond, plum, damson, and others 
such as laburnum, quince, and holly, appear@tomhavessec em 
used at all periods, in small pieces, for inlay or for bosses or 
split-balusters. ‘The “ strap-and-jewel”? work of the late Tudor 
and early Stuart periods is nearly always fashioned from one 
or another of these fruit woods. The trees = possessingue 
use-value, for their produce, would, as a general riley bewcus 
down after their bearing stage had passed, and some would 


WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 


never grow to any size even if 
allowed to remain. The use of 
the so-called “ oyster-piece ”—a 
transverse section of the trunk or 
bough—demonstrated that these 
saplings were cut and in common 
no one would take a 
section from a trunk, of a foot 
or more in diameter, for this 
purpose. 


use; Jas 


The chair-maker, using wood 
in small pieces, and relying upon 
the turning lathe as one of his 
principal tools, could use these 
saplings, which would be value- 
less to the joiner other than as 


— | 





Walnut Armchair. Type of c. 1665-70. 











Paes 2 ae aes 
Walnut Armchair. Early Restoration Type 
without Piercing, c. 1660. 


inlay-pieces or for transverse- 
cutting into small veneers. 
While walnut has not the 
durable properties of oak nor 
anything like its tough character, 
it is milder and closer in grain 
and would be more favoured by 
the wood-turner. Its chief draw- 
back, its hability to the ravages 
of worm, would not be appre- 
hended at the period when it 
was first used. Being close in 
grain, it could be easily varnished 
or, with the aid of beeswax,. 
would take a good friction polish. 


260 


To judge of its apparent superi- 
ority we must not compare seven- 
teenth-century walnut with oak 
of similar period as we find them 
to-day. ‘To appreciate the differ- 
ence which existed at the period 
when they were made, we must 
compare new walnut with new 


oak both finished 


without any attempt at what is 
¢ 


furniture, 


known as an “ antique finish.” 
There is little doubt that, super- 
ficially, walnut triumphed over 
oak and remained the popular 














| 
| 


Walnut Armchair. Rare Type with Oval 
Back Panel, c. 1665. 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 

















Walnut Armchair. The Fine Restoration 
Type of 0. 1660; 


wood until its defects were 
discovered with time, and _ its 
place was taken by mahogany. 
The change in the form and 
methods of construction of the 
English chair, which is so marked 
after the 
begins during 


Restoration, 
the 
wealth. The Puritan appears as 
an extraordinary blot on the 
English historical 
paralleled only, perhaps, by some 


really 
Common- 
landscape, 


‘* particular > “people; ime ten 
days, who can find no better 


Ved INU TAG Hed LES 


purpose in this world than to 
everything contained 
itcremsics wlittle senougd 
excuse for the iconoclasm of the 
nigelmess on Henry VIII., Ed- 
ward VI., or Elizabeth, at whose 
hands so much of the fine work 
Gimeine fiteenth century was 
despoiled, but they may have 
alleged public policy as an excuse, 
albeit a very poor one. ‘The 
Puritan had no such defence. 
The particular vandal who was 
found in Canterbury Cathedral 


revile 
mm it. 

















Walnut Chair. The Crown is Intreduced 
into Cresting and Stretcher, c. 1665 


OF 1660-1700 261 








Walnut Chair. The Crude Restoration 
Type of c. 1670. 


on a ladder, busily engaged in 
breaking up the priceless glass 
in some of the thirteenth-century 
windows, explained that he was 
doing the Lord’s work, 
received a brick at his head as 
a reply from an angry onlooker, 
but escaped having his brains 
dashed out, perhaps for another 
reason as well as the one that the 
said onlooker missed his aim. 
The Puritan chair was usually 
Severe and ssimple like | tlie 
Roundhead himself, yet logically 
well-braced with 


and 


constructed, 

















Walnut Armchair. An Early Appearance 
of the Braganza Foot, c. 1665. 


orderliness of design which render 
them well worthy of the attention 
of our collector. 

The true Restoration chair, 
of which a good many examples 
are shown here, belongs essentially 
to the walnut period, and when 
of high quality, is nearly always 
made in that wood. Oak is not 
uncommon, and I have found 
these chairs in elm, ash, and even 
yew, sometimes several woods 
being used together in the same 
Chair 


The chair of good quality 


is unmistakable, the quality of 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


stretcher and cross railing, with 
legs and balusters simply turned, 
often with the bobbin or reel 
turning which we have already 
seen in tables of this period. 
The usual seat and back panel 
was a tightly stretched 
cowhide, secured by large round- 
headednails. Theone on page 258 
may be taken as the type of a 
period which is not without 
interest as far as the development 


stout 


of English furniture is concerned. 
Chairs of this kind have a sturdi- 
ness of construction and a precise 





| 














Walnut Armchair with Flemish Motives in 
the Back Framing and Front Stretcher, 
c. 1670. 


WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 263 


the carving being superb, vigorous gouge-cutting executed with pre- 
cision, highly finished, yet with no tentative aid from the rasp or file. 
The framing or splats which enclose the panel of cane in the back are 
nearly always pierced right through, in the best examples. Beyond the 
substitution of this caning for leather, and the lavish use of carving, 
these early Restoration chairs follow those of the Commonwealth in con- 
structive principles. ‘Take the two armchairs on page 259 as examples. 
The back is a complete panel in each case (to which the criss-crossed 
caning lends an additional strength), properly secured with tenons 
and pegs between the back legs. Below the seat-rail is the further 
addition of one or two stretcher-rails. In armchairs, by the necessary 
prolongationof the front legs above the seat-rail to act as arm-balusters, 
the seat-frame is properly housed at all four corners, and in chairs 
without arms, as on the top illustration on page 261, the front leg- 
squares are allowed to project above the seat, rounded off in the form 
of buttons, by the wood-turner. Both back and front legs are spiral- 
turned in these early Restoration chairs, with squares left for the 
mortising of the seat, front stretcher and cross rails. These pierced 
and carved stretcher-rails are characteristic of the early Charles II. 

















Walnut Day-Bed. Twisted Railings between Legs on Both Sides, ¢. 1660. 


chairs. They follow, as a general rule, the cresting-rail of the chair- 


back in design, and the opportunity which they offered, both by their 


264 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


size and position, for the display of skill in design and execution on 
the part of the wood-carver, was taken full advantage of. ‘Thus we 
find the front stretcher used on chairs, long after the vogue for this 
Restoration pattern had departed—that is, considering the kaleido- 
scopic rapidity with which one fashion succeeded another in the forty 
years from the time when Charles II]. came over from Holland, to 
ascend the English throne, until the end of the seventeenth century. 
That Charles did not forget the Dutch friends of his exile can be 
imagined, although the race of Stuarts possessed rather a keener sense 
of favours to come than of those which had gone before. Whether 
by direct invitation, or in the hope of royal patronage, Charles was 
not many years on his English throne before a numerous body of 
workmen from the Low Countries settled here, in Norfolk, Suffolk, 
Essex, and Kent, bringing with them, among other things, the art 
of the marqueterie cutter, and possibly of the lacquer-worker as well. 
From about 1670, until the accession of Anne, we get a number of 

















Walnut Day-Bed, with Pierced and Carved Stretcher on one side only; c. 1660. 


foreign influences in English furniture, which complicate its develop- 
ment to such an extent, that it is impossible to illustrate, in anything 


WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 


like a way, the 
diversity of manners during 


complete 


these years, in a book of this 
Thus find the 


whorled Portuguese foot, as 


size. we 
on the upper illustration on 
page 262, which, with other 
details, 
craftsmen who followed the 
Catherine to these 
shores. From Flanders comes 
the double-ended or §-scroll, 
on the of the 
lower chair on the same page. 
A later variation of the same 
device is the breaking up of 
the flowing line of this curve 


Was 


introduced by 


Princess 


as stretcher 


oo 





VF alnut The Upholstered 


Armchatr. 


Type of c. 1670. 








Walnut Armchair. Covered in Needlework ; 


c, 1670, 


into a device similar to a double 
C laid flat. The three chairs on 
page 268 all have this C-scrolling used 
wherever possible in the design. The 
seats here are no longer tenoned 
between the projecting squares of 
the front legs, but are now merely 
spiked on them, a departure from 
the earlier sound construction of 
the first Restoration years which is 
regrettable. 

An innovation of the Restoration 
years is the day-bed or couch, where 
the chair-seat 1s prolonged and sup- 
ported “on six legs instead of four. 


266 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


As a rule, these day-beds were intended to be placed against a wall, 
the usual pierced stretcher on the front of the chairs beimeehene 
on the side, but on one side only, as on pages 264 and 266. Where the 
spiral-turned rails replaced these pierced stretchers, they were fixed 
on back and front, as on page 263, so that the day-bed was alike on both 
sides. ‘These pieces, although decorative in appearance, had certain 
defects inherent to their design and construction. The sloping 
back was fragile, owing to the strain being thrown on the cross-grain 
of the wood of the sloping uprights, or prolongation of the back 
legs. ‘The usual plan, which further intensified this weakness, was to 
make the back adjustable, as on this page, the back-frame being pivoted 
in the lower squares of the uprights, and secured at varying angles 
by the cords shown here. 

The chair with upholstered seat and back also begins to develop 
during these years, dictated less, perhaps, by considerations of com- 
fort, as the desire to display such fabrics as velvets, damasks, and petit- 




















Walnut Day-Bed. Later Restoration Type, with Adjustable Head Panel, c. 1680. 


point needlework. Velvets and silks were beginning to be imported 
from France and Flanders extensively at this period, but they do not 


Va igiN eC ees OF eVO60=1700 


become as general as after the 
Revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes in 1685, an act of oppres- 
sion on the part of the French 
king which had the effect of 
exiling thousands of French 
weavers, who fled to this country 
from such persecutions as the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
and settled here, principally in 
the Spitalfields quarter, bringing 
with them their weaving arts, 
which were lavishly fostered by 
the wealthy classes of England. 
1695,)to. 1700 may be 


From 

















Walnut Armchair. The Elaborate 
Restoration Type of c. 1680. 








| 








Walnut Armchair. The Restoration Type 
of Back with the Flemish Curve on Arms, 
Balusters, Front Legs, and Stretcher, 
c. 1680. 


described as the era of gorgeous 
fabrics. 

Needlework, in its many 
phases, was an English art for 
Over a century, pute maqibeen 
rarely devoted to the production 
of coverings for chairs or settees 
before the Restoration. In cross, 
tent, Burgundian 
stitch; or in the raised) designs 


(generally of Scriptural subjects) 


congress or 


known as stump-work, the usual 
endeavour was to produce panels 


268 


or pictures in- 
tended to be 
framed and hung 
upon the wall; 
occasionally a 
small piece of 
glass (which was 
a costly, Yarticle 
at this date) was 
provided, with a 
broad frame em- 
bellished with 
this stump-work. 
In these frames, 
and the small 
caskets of the 
period, the pat- 


IOEGS 
































Walnut Chairs 
Showing the Later 
Development from 
the Earlier Res- 
toration Chairs. 
The Backs are 
Taller, the Seats 
Narrower, and 
are Spiked to the 
Front Legs in- 
stead of being 
Tenoned between 
them. The 
Flemish Curve 
and Double - C 
scroll ts used 
everywhere; c. 
1680. 


OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


tern was often 
worked Lat 
coloured beads. | 

During satin 
short reign of 
James IT. a num- 
ber of? foretea 
influences in- 
truded into the 
designing aloe 
English furni- 
ture, especially of 
Chairs. whic 
being the pro- 
duction Of 7a 
separate, maid 
more progressive, 











WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 269 


trade, readily adopted any novelty. It is impossible, in the space 
at command here, to illustrate all the types which followed one 
another at this period in almost bewildering variety, but some 
reference 1s necessary, however brief, as these fashions do not come and 
go, but remain to affect the later designs very materially. ‘Thus we 
have the Spanish bow or curve, shown in the back and stretcher of 
the walnut chair on page 270. In the next example this bow is 
amalgamated with the Flemish double-C scroll and the Portuguese 
whorled foot. Another feature, also from Portugal, is the use of the 
Dulbeinstesd of the former square.to contain the stretcher-railing, 
as on page 271. ‘The back is now composed of one complete frame 
instead of a separate panel tenoned between balusters, with a cresting 
either fixed between the squares or dowelled on top (see page 273). 
The earlier shaped, pierced, and carved stretcher between the front 
‘legs is now supplemented by a cross-rail fixed between those which 
unite the front and back legs, as on page 272. After 1689 the shaped 























lateral stretcher, something like the form of the letter X, is introduced 
from the Low Countries, and the well-known chair from Hampton 


270 





THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Court, shown here on page 2740hes 
this flat stretcher combined with the 
Portuguese bulb-turning and whorled 
foot. This bulb is afterwards modified 
in various ways, culminating, at length, 
in the inverted cup which is so typical 
of the period of William and Mary. 
The chair on page 273 is interestine eas 
the ornate pierced and carvedmabace 
shows the influence of the later French 
Renaissance transmuted through Low 


Walnut Chair with the Spanish 
Curve in Stretcher and Back, 
c. 1685. (Lhe Author.) 


Country channels. Chairs of 
this type are well worthy of 
the attention of the dis- 
criminating collector, as not 
only are they exceedingly 
decorative and well designed, 
but they are also interesting 
in ether vatietyearendemtne 
number of different influ- 
ences, from many sources, 


which they exhibit. 





Walnut Armchair with Strong Flemish Influ- 


ence, c. 1685. 


(C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) 


WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 27.1 


The cabriole leg, in its fully developed form, is peculiar to the 
eighteenth century, although we find tentative attempts in the years 
from 1690 to 1700. A description of the method of making a leg of this 
kind may be of some assistance, in appreciating the difficulties which 
had to be encountered at the outset. That the older models of Holland 
were copied is unquestionable. The two chairs on page 275 are Dutch 
in design if not in origin, and the clean smooth character of the 
English cabriole, which renders it so effective, is here frittered away 
by needless embellishment of the carver or the turner. There was 
also the idea, always present, that a chair on four legs demanded the 
strengthening aid of the cross-stretcher. 

In the making of a smooth cabriole | 1 
leg the shape is first drawn out and cut | 
from a thin board. ‘This is known as a 
templete. The design is, necessarily, in 
profile, but it will be seen later that this 
cannot be the exact shape which the leg 
will afterwards assume. A block of wood 
of sufficient thickness is taken, and cut 
on front and back to the marked lines. 
The pieces which fall from the saw are 
fetaincuwald used as “saddles? to 
permit of the piece being laid flat for 
cutting the other way. This second 
cutting, when completed, produces a 
square-sectioned cabriole, as on the 
chair on page 276. The first idea was 
to turn this leg over to the carver for 
embellishment, leaving it in its square 
form, with its profile unaltered. The 
next stage was to make a square collar Walnut Chair with Portuguese Bulb- 
about half-way down the leg, rounding Turned Legs, c. 1685-90. 
the shaft below until it terminated in 
a club-foot, as on page 277. The chief difficulty in rounding the 


entire leg, from immediately below the knee, was that the outer edge 

















27 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


had to be removed with the chisel or spoke-shave, thereby destroying 
the profile. ‘The result, therefore, had to be determined by the eye 
of the workman, zs there was no method of regulating this by a 
templete. Where two legs had to correspond exactly, for obvious 
reasons of symmetry, this absence of any means of producing such 
duplication, by mechanical means, was a rather serious matter, as a 
bad workman would spoil one leg after another. Ata later stage it 
was found possible to produce from a successful model a reverse, or 
‘“female,”’ templete, which could be used as a guide, but this was 
an idea which would not be self-evident, and while the square- 

sectioned cabriole was ac- 





cepted, there would be no 
valid reason to adventure 
in this way. The rounded 
cabriole, however, once 
accomplished successfully, 
the natural pride in work- 
manship, which is _ so 
evident in much of the 
work of this period, would 
be sufficient inducement 
to produce it again, and to 
establish a fashion for it. 
That the smooth cabriole 
was regarded as a triumph, 
in the. first syeatsgeoumcme 
eighteenth “Scentuwryemmmes 
shown by the fact that 
the maker of chairs and 
tables dispensed with the 
Walnut Armchair Covered in Needlework, aid of the wood-carver, 

c. 1690. (Messrs. Gill and Rezgate.) whose assistance had been 
so invaluable at many 














stages in the development of English furniture, as we have seen in 
these pages. It is only at a later date, and with the desire for some- 


WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 273 


thing novel, that the cabriole leg begins to be carved. The smooth, 
graceful cabriole is typical of English craftsmanship at its best. 
Those who have an eye for sheer beauty of line will appreciate the 
studiously restrained character of this English smooth cabriole, such 
as will be illustrated in a later chapter, with the inside profile almost 
straight, without the excessive curvature which the Dutch (who were 
the teachers of the English makers) never appeared to be capable of 
avoiding, and which gave such a flamboyant and unsightly character 
to much of their work in this 
field. 

These ornate chairs of the 
Oran ewe, chodeeatesstares and 
valuable pieces at the present 
day, although in sheer perfection 
of design they do not compare 
with much of the later Queen 
Anne work. To the trained 
craftsman, they appear as ’pren- 
tice efforts, work in a novel style 
not properly comprehended. 
There is fine workmanship, and 
no lack of elaborate carving, in 
these pieces, as a tule, and there 
is nothing that is amateurish in 
their execution. Perhaps at no 
cic wit tliewen (item Mcrol yao. 
furniture, did carving attain such 
a high standard of quality as in 
many of these chairs, such as on 
this page, for example; yet there 
Walnut Armchair with French Back and is the idea that he who designed 

Dutch Serpentine Stretcher, c. 1690. : : 

(C. H. F. Kinderman, Esq.) Chismech alr SiiAcmenOmclealesanG 

finished conception in his mind, 
but hoped to atone for a lack of cohesion of parts by a super- 


elaboration of detail. In the chair from Hampton Court, on 
18 





I 


274 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


this page, there is the lack of definite unity between the chair and 
its legs, and the undulating stretcher is not a fortunate conception, 
as a comparison between this and the previous chair will show. How 
much of this is due to direct Dutch influence, it is difficult to say; 
there is a very narrow line of demarcation between English and Dutch 
work at this period. 

English woodworking (and the same may be true of other crafts) 
possesses certain definite evolutionary peculiarities which are seldom 
found in the creative arts, painting, music, or literature. One is the 
rapid growth, from the birth of a new style, until a certain stage of 
perfection is attained, and then : ==: 
the decline, or rather, de- | | 
pravity, which always super- | 
venes. Directly a new manner 
became fashionable, the first 
efforts appeared to have been 
to produce the most exagger- 
ated versions, where elabora- 
tion of detail was used to hide | 
imperfections of the basic idea. | 
The next stage is where the 
style becomes rationalised, 
where frequent experiments 
have corrected initial faults, 
yet nothing has yet become 
mannered by repeated duplica- 
tion. _ The third stage, andthe 
one which persists for the 
longest space of timé, as a’ | 
general rule, is where the one 


pattern has been repeated so Walnut Armchair. Portuguese Bulb-Turned 
; Legs, Dutch Flat Serpentine Stretcher; 
often, that a convention has 


c. 1690. (Hampton Court Palace.) 
been established, and all spon- 


taneity has been lost and all the earlier fine details depraved. This 
peculiar law, in its operation, may be noted on the illustrations 

















WeALNGISCHAIRS OF 1660-1700 











| 





Walnut Chair, probably Dutch ; c. 1690. 


cabriole, yet this chair is at the 
zenith of its particular fashion. 
Those who prize rarity, at 
the expense of other qualities, 
may console themselves for the 
lack of the later perfection, by 
the exceptional character of these 
chairs at the closing years of the 
Seventeenth century. ‘hey are, 
unquestionably, much rarer than 
those of the Queen Anne or early 
Georgian period. To the student 
of English furniture they possess 
an additional interest, in illus- 
trating the evolutionary stages 


through which the chair had to 


275 
throughout this book. Thus 


these Orange cliairs are in) the 
Hist mestese; eticm last phase ot 
which can be remarked in the 
two Dutch chairs on this page, 
and in the wing chair on page 
270 ee unewemerccnee som) this 
chrysalis stage (if the expression. 
may be permitted) is just begin- 
ning, in the example on page 277. 
Whe greater technical excellence 
of the chair-maker of the early 
years of Anne would have pro- 
duced something better than the 
front: lees there, the immature 


| 

















Walnut Chair, probably Dutch ; c. 1690. 





276 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


pass before the perfect models of the early eighteenth century were 
evolved. When in their original coverings, of Spitalfields damask, 
brocatelle, cut-pile or figured velvet, or, best of all, of fine stitch 
needlework, they are, indeed, possessions to be envied. It is one 





Walnut Easy Chair, with the Square-Sectioned Cabriole Leg of 1690: 4 ft. 2 1m. High ; 
2 ft. 2 in. across Seat ; 1 ft. 9 in. Depth of Seat Outside. 
(Madame A de Gandarillas.) 


WALNUT CHAIRS OF 1660-1700 277 


of the strongest arguments against chairs in pairs, or in sets, which 
I know, that the collector loses in interest, by affording the 
necessary floor-space to repetitions of the one pattern, which 
might be devoted, to better advantage, to a number of models, 
which may harmonise even although they differ, considerably, yet 
illustrate at the same time the varying stages through which 





Walnut Easy Chair, with the Embryonic Cabriole Leg of 1690-95: 4 ft. } in. High; 
2 ft. 3 in. across Seat; 2 ft. 8 in. Outside Arms. 
(Capt. N. R. Colville, M.C.) 


278 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


the English chair has passed in its development. There is no greater 
charm, to my mind, in the hobby of collecting, than the search, 
pursuit, and discovery of ‘ bridge-pieces,”’ 
to complete an evolutionary chain, yet with the knowledge that, 


the constant endeavour 


however perfect such chain may be, apparently, there are always 
other links which may be found, the existence of which has been 
hardly suspected. This gives to the collecting of English furniture 
a definite purpose, with the added charm of the unexpected always 
present. Our perfect Old-World House should have no duplicates, 
yet be furnished on as ordered a plan as space consideration will 
permit. Here the furniture collector is more fortunately circum- 
stanced than the bibliophile. The latter knows the links which are 
missing, and has the added chagrin of being fully aware that many 
of these he can never hope to acquire, no matter how royal (perhaps 
in these days, one should say, large) his purse may be.. His missing 
volumes must be extremely rare, or he would have possessed them, 
long since. With the collector of English chairs, for example (to 
be an evolutionary collector, the field cannot be a wide one, hence the 
implied limitation here), if he be wise, the secret of how much he 
desires to possess a certain model, to complete his series, will remain 
a guarded secret, let us hope, until after he has made his purchase. 
I have known of two collectors, only, in a certain field of works of art 
being sufficient to establish a boom; sometimes one is enough, if his 
wants be advertised sufficiently among “ the trade.” In the phrase- 


ology of the dealer, ‘‘ Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” 


(CUB Sd IMEI MGRY 


Piven? ALNUS FURNITURE OF THE SEVENTEENTH: 
CENTURY 


Poy, HERE are many to whom marqueterie or lacquered 
8 furniture makes little or no appeal. Polychromatic 
inlay is apt to become assertive in rooms of small 
size, and here, also, lacquered pieces can only be used 
7p very sparingly. It is comparatively easy (it is only 
ca question of the heavy purse) to acquire notable 
examples of English furniture; it is always something of a problem 
to arrange them in the Old-World House in such manner that each 
falls into its proper place, naturally, as a part in a harmonious scheme. 
Our house being modest in scale, with low rooms not of great size 
(happy is he who possesses a long, low room, some thirty feet by 
only eight or nine in height, deal wainscotted, and with one or two 
roomy Georgian bay windows to break up the expanse), it is as well to 
recognise, at the outset, the futility of trying to arrange pieces which 
were intended for large and lofty rooms. ‘To set out to buy exactly 
the thing required is not always economical policy; the one with a 
volume deficient in a library set cannot expect (unless he have the 
greatest possible luck) to buy the missing book cheaply, when found 
by a happy chance. It is always advisable—in fact, it is imperative— 
that any piece of furniture should be bought with a definite position 
in the mind’s eye, and one should feel assured that it will look well 
in its place and not clash with the general scheme, but it is as well 





to keep an open mind as to the exact description of such article. 

It is one of the charms of antique furniture, compared with modern 

work, that one so often encounters the utterly unexpected, the piece 
279 


280 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


which conforms to no preconceived notion. The ideas briefly referred 
to in Chapter V., reinforced with some experience and an intelligent 
use of the imagination, will prevent the purchasing of such pieces as 
Tudor writing tables, for instance, which a little thought will show 
cannot exist as genuine examples. It is hardly necessary to belabour 
this point further. 

Contemporary with the marqueterie and lacquered furniture 
of the later seventeenth century, as described and illustrated in 
Chapters XI. and XII., are the refined walnut pieces which were 
made very sparingly, probably for those of quieter taste or more modest 
means. Simple inlay, of stringing or stars in boxwood or holly, was 
often employed, but as a rule the decorative effect was achieved by 
the use of walnut of fine figure, either in plain sheets of veneer, or 





Walnut Table : 3 {t. 14 in. Wide ; 2 ft. 14 n. Deep ; 2 ft. 44 in. High ; c. 1690. 
(Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


cross-banded. Occasionally the sapling “ oyster-pieces ” of walnut, 
laburnum, or lignum were substituted for the plain walnut. 


PLAIN WALNUT FURNITURE 281 


Perhaps the most desirable examples of this period are the small 
tables and square cabinets on spiral-turned legs or stands similar to 
those shown here. ‘That these are merely the simple versions of the 
marqueterie pieces, probably made as cheaper alternatives, is more 
than probable, but depending, as they are compelled to do, on grace 
of proportion, line, and detail for their appeal, the: present-day 
collector of discriminating taste often prefers them to the more 
elaborate specimens. 

The lavish use of spiral turning in these tables and cabinets may © 
excuse a somewhat necessary digression in order to explain the 





Walnut Table, with Double Open-Twist Legs : 3 ft. 2% in. Wide ; 2 ft. 3 in. Deep 5 2 ft. 
54 in. High; c. 1690. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


principle of the slide-rest, that adjunct to the turner’s lathe which is 
used in the fashioning of these twist-turned legs. A simple illustra- 


282 JHE OLD OREDSAOUSE 





Walnut Table in the Saloon at Lyme Park, c. 1695. 


(Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh.) 


PIEAIN AEN EP ORNITOR E 283 


tion will serve to show the idea. ‘Take a round piece of wood, 
similar to a desk ruler, and suspend it between centres so that it can 
be revolved easily. The chucks of an ordinary turning lathe will 
be the best. While the ruler is revolving slowly, place the point of a 


| 
wie ciel 





Walnut Cabinet in the Saloon at Lyme Park, c. 1690. 
(Capt. The Hon. Richard Legh.) 


lead pencil against it at one spot. The result will be a ring, marked 
by the lead. Now, instead of allowing the pencil to remain stationary, 


284 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


move it slowly from left to right. We will now get a line spiralled 
round the ruler, the close twisting of which will depend upon the 


E: fh TS, 
Fa 





Walnut Cabinet, c. 1695. 


rate at which the lead is moved, or its equivalent, the rapidity of 
revolution of the round picce of wood in the lathe. Now substitute 


PLAIN WALNUT FURNITURE 285 


for the pencil, which merely marks, a tool which cuts, and we will 
begin to obtain a spiral turning, the degree of subsequent finishing 
depending largely on the shape of the cutting tool, whether of chisel 
or gouge-form. With the slide-rest, the cutter is at the back, and 
the revolution of the turning and the rate of the slide can be accurately 
adjusted to the desired proportions by gearing. 

There are many varieties in spiralling possible with the slide- 
rest. ‘There is the single-bine twist as on page 280, either parallel or 
tapered; the double twist where the effect is similar to two rods 
plaited together; the double-open twist (see page 281) where the wood 
is cut away between the plaits; the triple-open twist; the fluted or 
‘ barley-sugar ’’ twist, where the spiralling is sharp-edged; and other 


Wee 





The Cabinet on Page 284 Shown Open. 


varieties known as “ point,” “ fiddle-head,” “latchee,” and another 
kind, which will be seen in the examples of tripod furniture in the 


286 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


is 
< 
a. 
es 


eee yon i 28 





Walnut Chest of Drawers on Stand : 4 ft. 24 in. Total Height ; 2 ft. 6 in. Height of Chest ; 
3 ft. Wide; 1 ft. 74 in. Deeps; c. 1690. (Messrs. Herbert Gould and Lucas.) 


PLAIN WALNUT FURNITURE 207, 


next volume, where the flutes in a tapered shaft, instead of being 
straight up and down, are spiralled round. The last is lathe-work 
peculiar to the eighteenth century. 

The three tables, on twisted legs, shown here require no detailed 
reference. ‘The one on page 281 exhibits strong Dutch or Teutonic 
influence, the foreign character being further emphasised by the 
star-inlay of the top. The example from Lyme Park on page 282 shows 
the clever use which was made of the cross-cut saplings, here bor- 
dered and panelled with broad bandings of light-coloured laburnum. 





Walnut Card Table: 2 ft. 3 in. High; 2 ft. 84 in. Wide ; 2 ft. 5 in. Deep 
when Open; c. 1695. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) 


The resemblance between many of the pieces of this period is so 
close as to suggest a common origin, not only of locality, but even of 


288 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 





Walnut Bureau Cabinet, c. 1695. 
(C. H, F, Kinderman, E5q.) 


workshop. Thus, in the 
square cabinet from Lyme 
Park, illustrated here on 
page 283, the details of the 
legs, stretchers, and even 
the brass drop-handles 
are identical to those of 
the table on page 280. 
Between the table on 
page 28 2) ragmdemesee 
cabinet, shown open 
and closed, on pages 284 
and 285, there is a simi- 
larity but nothing more. 
The twist-turned legs are 
alike only on a superficial 
examination. 

To those for whom 
individuality has an ‘ap- 
peal, this plain walnut 
furniture of the seven- 
teenth centiryas. tomes 
recommended. The 
method of cutting mar- 
queterie in layers of from 
four to Sixmvemecrss 
necessarily sinvomneu 
duplication, if a con- 
siderable expenditure of 
labour and material was 
not to be wasted. With 
this plain walnut there 
was no such incentive, 
and we find pieces which, 
while possessing little 


PLAIN WALNUT FURNITURE 289 





Walnut Bureau Cabinet: 3 ft.3 in. Wide; 1 ft. 


102 in. Deep Over All; Lower Carcase, 3 jt. 
63 in. High ; Upper Carcase, 4 ft. High to Top 
of Base of Central Figure; c. 1695. (Capt. 
N.R. Colville, M.C.) 


I 





elaboration, are quietly 
studied in their effect. 
The art of the wood- 
turner, which had reached 
a high stage of mechanical 
perfection in the early 
Restoration years, was 
now reinforced by con- 
siderable taste. The turn- 
ing of the stand of the 
chest illustrated on page 
286 is no mere vague 
repetition: ofa pattern 
used again and again. 
There is a spontaneity in 
the fashioning of the legs 
which a craftsman’s eye 
will appreciate. The 
drawer-fronts are 
veneered from the same 
leaf, with the continuity 
of the veining lines pre- 
served. Ihe miarque- 
terie cutter has lent his 
aid in the making of 
the simple but effective 
banding to each drawer. 
For the constructional 
parts, both oak and elm 
have been used. In its 
restraint, and perfection 
of detail, this is one of 
the really desirable pieces 
for the Old-World House, 
with its low rooms; in a 
19 


290 THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


large apartment 
its quiet beauty 
would be _ lost. 
The same may be 
said of the small 
card table shown 
ony pape o 7, 
where the simple 
turned legs finish 
with the hoof 
which was a 
favourite device 
at toisepeltods 
Three small card 
drawers are pro- 
vided —in the 
frieze. 

The elaborate 
walnut furniture 
of the last decade 
of the seven- 
teenth century 
nearly always ex- 
hibits a marked 
Dutch character. 
There is little 
doubt that much 
of it was directly 
inspired from 
Holland, — prob- 
ably the work of 
Dutch artisans 
who settled in 
considerable 
numbers in the 





The Cabinet on Page 289, with Upper Doors and 
Bureau Open. 


PLAIN WALNUT FURNITURE 291 


East Anglian counties. Two notable examples are given on pages 
288 to 291. ‘The accurate mitring together of shaped and straight 





The Upper Part of the Cabinet on Page 290, with Central Door Open. 


mouldings, as on these two cabinets and the wardrobe which concludes 
the illustrations to this chapter, demanded considerable skill, as with 
the straight-cut mitre, the corresponding moulding-members of each 
section will not intersect properly. The mitre, therefore, has to be 
shaped in a flattened sweep, and this curvature can only be ascertained 
by setting out the design on paper, prolonging each member to 
its intersecting point, and then joining them up with a shaped 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 








Walnut Wardrobe: 4 ft. 8 in. Wide; 7 ft. } in. High; 1 ft. 8% mm. Deep ; 
c. 1695. (Capt. N. R. Colville, M.C.) 


PLAIN WALNUT FURNITURE 293 


line, taking a careful templete in each case for the workman’s 
guidance. 

A characteristic feature of these cabinets was the elaborate fitting 
of the interiors. In the one on page 290, where the Dutch influence 
is exceptionally strong, the cornice is surmounted by five carved and 
gilt figures, executed with great precision and skill. The veneers of 
this cabinet are of the fine golden shade which much of this English 
walnut possesses when the original varnish has not been tampered 
with. It is this bleaching, by the gentle action of light, which the 
forger attempts to reproduce by the agency of acids and caustics, and 
in which endeavour he fails so signally. That this golden walnut 
has appreciated so greatly in value, during recent years, is a tribute 
to the growth of taste among collectors, in the same space of time. 
Designed with unerring taste, and made with unfailing skill, this 
walnut furniture of the last years of the seventeenth and early part 
of the eighteenth centuries is a possession which the collector may well 
be proud to possess, and the modern craftsman to imitate. 





TENGE 


Access traps for lighting installations, 56 


enrichments, I4I | 


mantels, 8, 33 

Afghan rugs, 69 
American “ high-boys,” 99 

oak, 43 

roll-top desks, 110 

tiled-in baths, 47 

their disadvantages, 48 

Anatolian carpets, 60 

rugs, 59 
Anthracite stoves, efficiency of, 31-32 

surrounds for, 21 
Architect-designers, 104 
Architects of the Victorian era, 14 
Architraves, 20-25 
mouldings, 20 
Victorian, 15 

Ardabil carpets, 61 
“ Arkwright,” the, 196, 200 
Armenian carpets, 60 
Aromatic cedar panelling, 150 
Arrangement of rooms, 36 
Azerbaijan carpets and rugs, 62 


Balusters, 29 
Barking Church, oak inlaid chair from, 165, 
169 
Barningham Hall, long bench from, 163 
Barnstaple, panelled room at, 39 
Barrel ceilings, 38 
Bath: 
American tiled-in, 47-48 
cast-lron, vitreous-enamelled, 46 
chain-waste to, 47 
copper, the ideal, 46 
ideal, 52 
mixing chamber, 46-47 
size, 46 





| Bath—continued: 
Adam Brothers; responsible for composition | 


portable, 46 
position of the, 46 
rod-waste to, 47 
Roman, 45 
semi-sunk, 48 
taps, 46-47 
nickel-plated, 52 
vitreous-enamelled, 51 
tubular-waste to, 47 


| Bathroom, 45 


doors, 48, 51 

floors, 51 

heating, 48 

lavatory basins, 50-51 
mirrors, 51 

tiling, 48 

towel-rails in, 48 

in Victorian era, 14 


walls, 48-50 


Bedsteads, 85-86 


Bell’s asbestos flooring, 51 


| Beluch rugs, 69 


| 
| 
| 


Bergam carpets and rugs, 60 
Bijar carpets and rugs, 66 


| Billesley Manor, wainscotting from, 146 


Bindings, tooled leather, 9 
Blakiston, arms of, in marqueterie, 228, 230 
Bokhara carpets and rugs, 69 
Bookcases, 77, 92 
ideal country, 8 
Boughton Malherbe, “ vine ” wainscotting 
Atlas 
Bowes-Lyon, arms of, in marqueterie, 228 
Bowes of Clonlyon, 228 
Boxford Church door-panels, 124 
Box-locks, 26 
brass, 145 
Bramah’s locks, 108 
“ Bridge-pieces,” discovery of, in collect- 
ing, 278 


295 


296 


Bromley-by-Bow Palace, oak panelling 


from, 131, 136 | 


Buffet, the, 209 
angle, 210-211 
open, clever forgeries of, 209 
Bureau, the, 100 
bookcases, 96 
cabinets, 104-105 
cabriole, 102 
Chippendale, 98, 99 
cylinder, 114-115 
double-carcase, 102 
double-domed, Ior 
rare form of, 102-103 
writing, 79 


Cabinet, square, at Lyme Park, 288 
Cabinets, 77 
; double-domed, 102 


Cabriole leg, commencement of carving, | 
O72) 


Dutch, 271 
excessive curve of, 273 
fully developed, 271 
method of making, 271 
Candelabra, 52 
Candle lamps, glass, 53 
Candles, the charm of, 53 
electric, 53 
Card tables. See Tables 
Carlton House table, 113 
Carpets, Anatolian, 60 
Armenian, 60 
Caucasian, 59, 61-62 
Central Asian, 69 
Chinese, 72 
fitted, 54 
Oriental, 56-76 
Persian, 62-68 
Smyrna, 59, 60 
Turkey, 59-61 
factory-made, 59 
Turkoman, 69 
Carton-pierre enrichments, 33 
Caucasian carpets and rugs, 59, 61-62 
Ceilings, barrel, 38 
fittings, 52 
low-pitched, 35 
Victorian, 15 








THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Central Asia, carpets and rugs made by 
nomadic tribes of, 57-69 
Chair-maker, trade of the, 167 
making after 1660, 257 
tables, 180-181 


Pp Chairss77, 
ash, 262 
box-settle, 180 
Charles II. See Restoration 


’ Chippendale, 3 
construction of, 176-177 
Cromwell period, 178 
C-scroll leg on, 265 
Dutch, 275 
elm, 262 
English, the collector of, 278 
development of, 159 
evolutionary stages in, 275 
Gothic prototype of, 159 
* grandiather, 977, 
Hampton Court, 269, 270, 273 
Henry VIII., 168 
James I., 169 
James IT., 168 
lacquer, 256 
lavish use of carving on, 263 
mahogany, Chippendale, 3 
marqueterie, 235 
oak, perfect design of, 179 
Orange period, ornate, 273, 275 
Portuguese foot on, 265 
Puritan influence on, 260-261 
Restoration, 262, 265 
arm, 263 
Dutch influence in, 264 
sets of, arguments against the col- 
lecting of, 277 
smoking, 179 
S-scroll on, 265 
stool-table, 180 
Stuart, 160-161 
oak, 180 
Tudor, 160 
*“‘ turneyed,” 168 
upholstery of, 178 
of seat and back, 266 
substitution of caning 
for leather, 263 
walnut, 259-278 
varieties of, 269 


INDEX 


Chairs, well-known types, 174-175 — 
William and Mary, 168, 270 
Windsor, 174, 179 

eighteenth-century, 179, 186 | 
wing,:/7 
yew, 262 
Yorkshire, 174, 178-179 

Chamfered door-panels, 44 

Character, a house of, 9 

Charles II. chairs, 263 

Chinese cabinets, 248 

Chemical bleaching of Oriental rugs, 74-75 

Cheshire wood panelling, types of, 136 

Chests, 77-78 
commemoration, 204 
Commonwealth period, 207 
early, construction of, 195-196 

original finish of, 203 
Elizabethan, 200 
French influence on, 203-206 
inlaid, 206, 208 





of Dutch origin, 208 
thirteenth-century, 199 
versus coffers, 204-205 
with drawers, development of, 209 
Cheval glasses of the Sheraton period, 92 
Chimney breasts, commencement of, 98 
Chimney-pieces of the Victorian era, 14 
China-cabinets, 82-83. 
cupboards, 44 
door-handles, 26 
niches, 4.4. 
Chinese cabinets of Restoration period, 348 | 
square, rarity of, 248 
carpets, 72 
lacquer, 242, 244 
plates, blue-and-white, 33 
Tugs, 59, 72 
Chinnor Church, screen at, 164 
Chippendale, 9 
bureaux, 98, 99 
chairs, 3 
dressing-tables, 89, 90 | 
period, 180 | 
side tables, 84-85 
Chivelstone, pulpit at, 196 
Christchurch Priory, wood and stone work 
at, 134 
Church woodwork of Gothic period, 118 
Clare, door from house at, 128 








Day-beds, 77 


297 


Cleanliness, 11 
versus Victorian respectability, 
15 
Inn, large-panel wainscotting 
from, 137 
“ Clinker ” wainscotting, 127-128 
Clock cases, marqueterie, 236 
Clocks, long-case, 16 
Coffer versus chest, 204-205 
Coffin stools, 161, 180 
Colchester Museum, early wall-painting 
in, 117 
Collecting furniture, charm of the un- 
expected in, 279 
educational value of, 


W221 73 


Clifford’s 


photographs, 93-94 
Collector of furniture, the, 4-7, 10 
types of, 153 
wealthy, 18 
Comfort, modern ideas of, II 


| Commonwealth period, chests of the, 207 
| Composition enrichments, 141 


floors for the bathroom, 51 


| Concealed staircases, 29 
| Construction in furniture, definition of 


perfect, 212 
Copper baths, 46 
Cork-carpet for bathroom floors, 51 
Cornice mouldings, 20 


| Cornices, plaster, 25 


Victorian, 15 
Couches, long, 77 
Court, or standing, cupboards, 78 


Credence the oaky75.105 
| Cromwell period chairs, 178 
| Cupboards, 77, 198-212 


court, or standing, 210 

Gothic, 199 

oak china, 44-45 

primitive form of, 198 
Cylinder bureaux, 114-115 


| Dadoes, 25 


heights of, for Georgian rooms, 20 
mouldings, 20 
Davenport china, 45 


Restoration, 265-266 


298 


Deal floors, varnishing of, 54 
panelling, Georgian, 38, 43 
in natural wood, recent 
fashion for, 139 
panelling, proper treatment for, 144 
of Stuart period, 138 
wainscotting, 8 
in eighteenth century, 
137 
Decorative value of furniture, 6 
Demirdji Smyrna carpets, 60 
Derbend carpets and rugs, 61 
Derbyshire wood panelling, types of, 136 
Dersingham Church, chest in, 199 
Development of the bureau, or scrutoir, 
78-115 
Devonshire, fifteenth-century woodwork in, 
10 
wood-panelling, 136 
woodwork, supremacy of, 129 
Dining-room, the, 16-17 
tables, 82 
Dissolution of the Monasteries, effect of, 
on English woodwork and furniture, 156- 
157, 200 
Distaff stools, 180 
Divan coverings, Oriental, 62 


Doddridge, Pentecost and Elizabeth, 39, 


40, 228 

“ Doloment ” jointless flooring, 51 
Doors, 25-28 

bathroom, 48 

finger plates of, 26 

handles of, 26 

hinges of, 26 

keys of, 26 

locks of, 26 

panels, chamfered, 44 

* feided 244 

proportions, importance of, 25 

six-panelled, 25 

Swedish, 25 

thicknesses of, 25 

Victorian, 15 
Double-chests, 99 
Dower-chests, marqueterie, 226-227 

oak, 203-204 

Drawing-room, the, 8 
Draw-tables, 87, 185 
Dressing-glasses, 92, 102 


THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Dressing-tables, 89 

| Dry-rot, prevention of, 55-56 

Dudley House, Park Lane, morning-room 

at, 144 

“* Dug-out ” coffers, 195, 197 

| “* Durato ” jointless flooring, 51 

| Dutch cabriole, excessive curve of, 271, 
273 

chairs 3275 

influence in lacquer work, 253 

influence in tables, 188-189, 192 

inlay in chests, 208 

lacquer, 244 

marqueterie. 

veneers, 257 


See Marqueterie 


East Anglian churches, 9 
counties, 39 
wood panelling, 134 
Eastern rugs, 56-76. See also Oriental rugs 
“Hating Parlour’ the, 6 
_ Eighteenth-century bureaux, 96, 101 
English woodwork, ex- 
amples of, 44 
Japanese work, 248 
lacquer work, 253 
lathe-work, 285, 287 
livable houses of the, 13 
painted deal wainscot- 
ting, 147 
rooms, good detailof, 19 
street doors, 26 
tables, types of, 80-81 
tallboys, 91 
wardrobes, 91 
| washstands non-exist- 
ent in the, 46 
Windsor chairs, 179, 180 
writing tables, 79 
elaborate, 108 





| Electric candles, 53 
lamps, 53 
lighting, 12 
access traps for, 56 
its many advantages, 52 
shades, 53 
ower plants, 52 
| Elizabethan panelled chests and cupboards, 
200 





INDEX 


Elizabethan tables, 185 
wood panelling, 134 
Elsley’s slow-combustion grates, 32 
English carpets, decline in value with wear, 
59 
pile, 56 
furniture of the oak period, 79 
lacquer, 244 
qualities of, various, 250 
square cabinets, 248 
marqueterie. See Marqueterie 
woodwork, Golden Age of, 156 
Entrance doors, 26-28 
gates, 13 
Escritoires, 95 
fall-front, 98-99. See also 
Bureaux and Writing tables | 
Stuart period, 79 
Evolution of furniture, study of, 93 


Fabrics, the era of gorgeous, 267 

“< Fakes,” 6 

| Maked @ lacquer, 252 

Fall-front escritoires, 98-99 

Farmhouses, old, adapted, 11 

Feraghan carpets and rugs, 63 

“ Fielded ” door-panels, 44 

Fifteenth-century furniture, rarity of, 202 
craftsmanship, Golden | 

Age of, 157 | 

woodwork of, 9 





Finger plates, 26 
Floor furniture, 77 
Floors, air circulation beneath, 55 
bathroom, 51 
deal, treatment of, 54-55 
dry-rot in, 55 
old, 11 
to remove grease from, 55 
treatment for, 55 
polished, 54-56 | 
Forde Abbey, settee from, 178 
Fourteenth century, carpentry in the, 196 
French bedsteads, 86 
lacquer, 244 
weavers, settlement of, in Eng- 


land, 267 


Friezes, 20-25 
Fruit woods, use of, 168, 258 





209 


| Furniture from the decorative point of 


view, 6 
modern, Io 
second-hand, II 
styles, explanation of, 170-172 


Gas for lighting, 53 


| Gate-leg bureaux, 96-97 


tables, 185, 193 
Gates, iron, 13 
wooden, 13 
Georgian china-cabinets, 83 
deal panelling, 38, 143 
doors, six-panelled, 20 
entrance doors, ornate character 
of, 27 
houses, 16 
mouldings, 19 
rooms, 20 
wainscotting, 42 
wood cornices, original, 44 
Ghiordes rugs, 60 
Glass door-handles, 26 


| Golden Age of English woodwork, 156 


walnut. See Walnut 


| Gothic cupboards, 199 


influence of, after 1550, on furni- 
ture, 201 
period, 77 
style, 15 
tables, caution to collectors, 186 
woodworking skill, 201 
Graining, 143 
Grates, 31 
slow-combustion, 32 
Victorian, 14 


| Great Fulford, early table at, 184 


Hall screens, 118, 128 
staircases, 29 


Hales Place, Tenterden, Tudor archway at, 
13 


| Half-timbered houses, 11 


decorative effect of, 
12 
See Great Hall 
the lounge, 30 
Hamadan carpets and rugs, 66 


Hall, Great. 


300 


Hampton Court, ** Cardinal’s Lodgynges ” 
at, 130, 134 
chair at, 269, 270 
Wolsey ceilings at, 134 
Handles, door, 26 
“* Harlequin ” furniture, 112 
Heating of rooms, II 
Hemsted, dining-room mantel at, 33 
Henry VIII., influence of, 156, 166 
chairs, 168 
Hepplewhite, 84, 102, 106 
Herat carpets and rugs, 66 
Herati pattern in rugs, 66 
Herefordshire wood panelling, type of, 
136-137 
Hereke Smyrna carpets, 60 
Herland, Hugh, 154, 195 
Herring-bone tiling, 35 
Hinges for doors, 26 
Hitchin, Georgian entrance doors at, 27 
Holland House, Persian carpets at, 65 
Home-life, influence of, 1 
lover of modest means, 18 
the making of an interesting, 3 
** House-that-has-happened,” the, Io 
Houses, average middle-class, 1 
half-timbered, 11-12 
livable, 13 
old, remodelling of, 11 
preservation of personality in, 13 
timbered, 12 
license in furnishing of, 15 
Huchter, the, 196, 200 
Hutch, the oak, 78 


Ideal bath, the, 46, 52 
bookcases, 8 
height for picture rails, 20 
paint for woodwork, 45 
sitting-room, 30 

Indian lacquer, 244 

Tugs, 59 

Influence of home-life, 1 

Inlay and marqueterie, 213 
chests, 206 
chopped-in, 169 
extreme antiquity of, 213 
ivory, 216 
polychromatic, 279 





THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Inlay, Tudor and Stuart method of, 213 

Inside sanitation, 92 

Intimacy of old furniture, 153 

Ispahan carpets and rugs, 64-65 

Italian influence in wood panelling, 120 
Renaissance ornament in panelling, 


135 
James I. chairs, 169 
James IT. chairs, 168 
constructive —_ principles 


sacrificed in, 177 
period, foreign influences in furni- 
ture of, 268 
Japanese cabinets, 248 
furniture, 246 
lacquer, 244 
work of the eighteenth century, 
248 
Joinery, interior, 18-19 
sections, 18 
economy of good, 18-19 
shrinkage in, 18 
stock, 18-19 
“Joint ” or “ joyned ” stools, 161 
Jushaghan carpets and rugs, 64 


Karabagh carpets and rugs, 61, 63 
Kashan carpets and rugs, 66 
Kazak carpets and rugs, 61-62 
Keene’s cement, 31, 45 
for bathroom walls, 49 
Kentish wainscotting, type of, 136 
Kent, William, 92-94, 104 
Khorassan carpets and rugs, 66 
Kidderminster carpets, 62 
Kilim carpets and rugs, 61 
Kimbolton, Chippendale dressing-table at, 
89 
Kirman carpets and rugs, 63, 66 
Kitchens, Victorian, 14 
Kneller, 8 
Knole Park, Ispahan carpets at, 64 
Korean lacquer, 244 
Koula carpets and rugs, 60 
Kuba or Kubistan carpets and rugs, 61 
Kurdish carpets and rugs, 60 


Lacquer, 16 
as an alternative to veneering, 252 


INDEX 


Lacquer, blue, rarity of, 241 
buying, hints on, 250 
cabinet stands, imitation gilding 
on, 250 
cabinets, Dutch influence in, 253 
English square, 248 
chairs, rarity of, 256 
English, various qualities of, 250 
peiakese y Ol. 252 
Japanese, 244 
Korean, 244 
modern, 252 
Persian, 244 
processes of, 242 
Queen Anne period, 254 
Rhus vernicifera, 242 
screens of the Ming Dynasty, 244 
tables, 255 
varieties of, 244 
Ladder-back chairs, Chippendale, 3 
Ladig or Ladik carpets and rugs, 60 
Lamps, china vases fitted as, 53 
glass candle, 53 
on; -52 
shades, 53 
standard, 53 
table, 53 
Lancashire chairs, 174-175, 178 
Lathe, results of use of, 166 
turning, 190 
work, eighteenth-century, 285, 287 
Lavatory basins, 50-51 
Lavenham, wainscotting at, 127 
Leather bindings, tooled, 9 
Lely, 8 
Lighting, II. 
Gas, and Lamps 
low rooms, 52-53 
wall-brackets for, 53 
Lime, destructive properties of, 49 
putty, action of, 49 
“‘ Linen-fold ” panelling, 119-134 
Lofty rooms, 36 
Long-case clocks, 16 
Long gallery, the, influence on. stair- 


cases, 29 
Lounge hall, the, 30. See also under 
Hall 


Low-ceiled rooms, 15-16 
advantages of, 36 


301 


Low-ceiled rooms, furnishing of, 16 
lighting of, 52 
limitations of, 16 
mouldings for, 20 
oak chests for, 202 
treatment of, 35-36 

Lyme Park, square cabinet at, 288 

table at, 287 


Magdalen College, Oxford, Pepys’ book- 
cases at, 83 
Mahogany furniture, 16 

panelling, 146, 150 
prejudice against, 150 
period, architect-designed fur- 
niture of, 104 

early, 102 


_ Making of an interesting home, the, 3 


| Mantelpieces, 31-33 


Adam, 33 
Mantel-shelves, 32-33 
Mantels for the Georgian house, 31-33 
for the seventeenth-century house, 
33, 35 
hooded, 38 
Marble bolection surrounds, 32 
imitation, 31 
mouldings, 31 


| Marqueterie, 16 


See also under Electric, | 


an older art in Holland than 
England, 215 
best period from 1695 to 
1705, 215 
cabinet, a remarkable, 226 
at Streatlam Castle, 228 
chairs, 235 
rarity of, 236 
clock cases, 236 
commemoration pieces of, 226 
cutter, methods of the, 214- 
215, 237-238 
dower-chests, 226 
Dutch, 220 
earliest, 236 
early, evolution in design of, 
224 
English, earliest type of, 216 
“* fakes,” difficulties in detect- 
ing, 238 


302 


Margueterie, floral, polychrome, 232 
mirror-frame, Dutch, 224 
mirrors, rare and costly 


pieces, 224 | 


origin or nationality, 236 

oyster-pieces, 220, 234 

period, 78 

scrolled, fine, 216 

surface condition of, 238 

workmanship, quality of, 237 
Matchboarding, 43 


“‘ Matching,” detestable craze for, 3, 10, 58 | 


Meshed carpets and rugs, 66 
Mirrors in the bathroom, 51 
Modillion cornices, 20 
Mortise locks, 26, 145 
Mouldings, 18 
embellished, 20 
danger of over- 
elaborating, 20 
for low rooms, 20 
Georgian, 19 
mass-production of, 19 


sections, importance of good, | 


09 
stock, 19 
Mujur carpets and rugs, 60 
Mullioned windows, 38 
Museum pieces, 18 
Muskabad carpets and rugs, 66 


Needlework, 267, 276 
New Romney Church, vase-baluster turn- 
ing in, 192 


Oak credence, the, 78, 85 
floors, treatment of, 55 
furniture, limited variety in, 16 
hutches, 78 
period, honest and logical construc- 
tion of furniture in the, 212 
furniture first made in 
reign of Anne, 102 
tables, 82, 88 


“ Occasional ” 


Oil lamps, 52 

Old floors, treatment of, 11 
furniture, intimacy of, 153 
houses, remodelling of, 11 
world house, the perfect, 278 





THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


Oriental carpets and rugs, 54-76. See 
also Oriental rugs 
divan coverings, 62 
lacquer, 242 
lacquered furniture, 246 
rugs: 
Afghan, 69 
Ardabil, 61 
Azerbaijan, 62 
Beluch, 69 
Bergam, 60. See also Pergam 
Bijar, 66 
Bokhara, 69 
buying, advice on, 74 
Caucasian, 61 
chemical bleaching of, 74-75 
Cossack, 60-62. See also 
Kazak 
Daghestan, 61 
Derbend, 61 
design, details of, 61 
domestic, 61 
Farsistan, 67 
Feraghan, 63 
Ghiordes, 60 
Hamadan, 66 
Herat, 66 
Ispahan, 64-65 
Jushaghan, 64 
Karabagh, 61, 63 
Kashan, 66. 
Kazak, 60-62. Seealso Cossack 
Khorassan, 66 
Kilim, 61 
Kirman, 63, 66 
Koula, 60 
Kuba or Kubistan, 61 
Kurdish, 60 
Ladig or Ladik, 60 
Meshed, 66 
Mujur, 60 
Muskabad, 66 
Pergam, 60. See also Bergam 
Pindé, 69 
Prayer, 61 
Saraband, 64 
Saruk, 66 
Sehna, 66 
Shiraz, 67 
Shirvan, 61-62 


INDEX 


Oriental rugs—continued: 
Soumak, 61 
Tabriz, 63 
Tekke, 69 
value of, enhancement with 
age, 59 
effect of Great War 
on, 59 
weave of, 57, 74 
Western ‘Turkestan, 69 
Yuruks, 61 
“ Oyster-pieces,” 259 
walnut, 280 


Paint, stripping of, 141 
Painted wood furniture, 16 
Panelled room from Barnstaple, 39 


eearchemimn “Yor “vine” panelling, 1169, | 


134 


Parian cement, 49 
Parlour, the, 8 
Parnham Park, the King’s Room at, 139 
Parquet flooring, 55 
Parqueterie, 213 
Parson’s “‘ Unicote” paint, 45 
for bathroom walls, 49 
Pedestal writing tables, 79, 104 
Pendants in the low room, 52 
Penhalow, John, of Clifford’s Inn, 41 
Penshurst, Gothic trestles at, 184 
Pepys’ library, 82-83 
Pergam carpets and rugs, 60 
Persian carpets, 62-68 
of fabulous value, 65-66 
lacquer, 244 
Tugs, 59 
Personality, preservation of, in a house, 


13 | 


Photographs of furniture, collecting of, 93 
“ Pickle ” for paint stripping, I41, 143 
Picture rails, 20-25 
height, ideal, 20 
painting of, 20 
Pictures, their rarity seventeenth 


century, 39 


in 


Pindé carpets and rugs, 69 
Pitch-mastic for oak board floors, 5§ 
Plantagenet dwellings, 116-117 
Plaster cornices, 25 


393 


| Pole lathe, 166 


| 
| 





screens, 80 
Polished floors, 54-56 
Powdering tables, gt 
Prayer rugs, 61 
Pritchett and Gold’s batteries, 52 


Queen Anne dressing-glasses, 90 
lacquer work, 254 


Raeburn, 8 
Refectory tables, 87, 184 
Relation of house to site, 12 
Remodelling of old houses, 11 
Renaissance in England, 158 
wood panelling, carved, 120 
Restoration chairs, 262-263 
wood-turning, art of, 289 
Reynolds, 8 
Richard II., period of, 154 
Rockingham china, 45 
Roe, Mr. Fred, 204, 205 
Roman bath, the sunk, 45 
Rooms, arrangement of, 26 
conversion of low, into lofty, 37-38 
lofty, 36 
low, 15-16 
furnishing of, 16 
lighting of, 16 
limitations of, 16 
mouldings for, 20 
treatment of, 35-36 
Rotherwas, Hereford, banqueting chamber 
at, 145 
Rugs, 54 
colour schemes of, 58 
not factory-made, 60 
Oriental, 56-76. See also under 
Oriental 
‘“ weeding out,” 59 
Rust’s vitreous tiling, 49 
Rye, woodwork in old houses at, 133 


Saraband carpets, runners and rugs, 64 
Saruk carpets and rugs, 66 
Secretaires, 97 

secret Cavities in, 100 


304 


Sehna carpets and rugs, 66 
Servant accommodation in Victorian era, 


4 | 


Seventeenth-century bureaux, 96 
carpets, rarity of, 40 
chairs, 159 
chests, 206 
cottages, II 


credence, 85 
farmhouses, II 
houses, mantels for, 
feb. Oks 
oak furniture, 202 
pictures, rarity of, in, 
; Eb) 
staircases, 29 
tables, 187 
walnut pieces, 280 
their indivi- 
duality, 288 
wood panellings, 136 
woodwork, 39, 40 
Sheraton, 15 
cheval glasses, 92 
Sheraton’s ‘‘ Drawing Book,” 106 


hanging wardrobe unknown 


before, o1 | 
I Suite,” the, 4,)10,.10 


Shiraz carpets and rugs, 67 
Shirvan carpets and rugs, 61 
Sideboard, the, 84-85 
tables, 82 
Sienna marble, 31-32 
Site, relation of house to, 12 
Sitting-room, the ideal, 30 
Sixteenth-century houses, staircases in, 29 
wood panelling, 130, 





THE OLD-WORLD HOUSE 


| Soumak carpets and rugs, 61 


Spiral-turning, method of, 285 
Staircases, 29 
Stuart period, dignity of, 29 
Victorian, 30 


Stalker and Parker, 


their treatise on 
“ Lackering,” 248 


| Standard lamps, 53 
craftmanship, fine, 40 | 


Turkey carpets, 59, 60 


| Stewards’ tables, 109 
| Stools, 77, 160-166 


coffin, 180 
cupboard, 180 
spinning-wheel, 180 
Streatlam Castle, Darlington, marqueterie 
piece at, 228 
Stuart card tables, 88 
chairs, 160-161, 178-179 
oak, 180 
houses, dignity of staircases in, 29 
early, 35 
inlay, method of, 213 
oak, inlaid, 213 
panelling, intimate character of, 38 


red deal, 138 


| Stump-work, 267-268 


Successful furnishing, variety the secret of, 


a7 


Swansea china, 45 


| Swedish doors, 25 


Sympson, maker of Pepys’ bookcases, 82 


| Table lamps, 53 


135-136 | 


Skirtings, 20-25 
for Georgian rooms, height of, 20 


projections, 20 © 


mouldings, 20 
Slide-rest, principle of the, 281 
Slow-combustion grates, 32 
Smoking chairs, 179 
Smyrna carpets, 59 
Soho Square, Venetian window at No. 7, 


144, 146 


Somerset, fifteenth-century woodwork, 10 


wood panelling, 136 


| 





Tables, 77, 86-89 
card, 82, 88 
chair, 181 
draw, 87, 185 
dressing, 89 
Dutch influence in, 188-189, 192 
earliest in England, construction 
of, 182 
known to exist, 184 
early, 181 
development of, in England, 
187 
eighteenth-century, 80-81 
Elizabethan, 185 
gate-leg, 185 


INDEX 


Tables, Gothic, warning to collectors, 186 
“harlequin,” 112 
lacquer, 255 
heights of, 183 
legs, bulbous, 189, 190 
Jacobean, 189 
* pull-out,” 194 
turned, 189 
twisted, 287 
types, various, 188-194 
vase-turning, 192 
occasional, 88 
powdering, 91 
pre-Tudor, 187 
refectory, 87, 184 
seventeenth-century, early, 187 
stewards’, 109 
Stuart period card, 88 
tambour writing, 110-112 
trestle type, 187 
tripod, 88 
“ vanity,” 88 
woods, variety used in construction 


of, 194 


writing, 95 
Tabriz carpets and rugs, 63 
“ Tallboys,” 91, 99 
Tambour writing tables, 110-112 
Tapestry wall-coverings, 116-117 
Taps, bath, 46-47, 51-52 
nickel-plated, 52 
pillar-valve, 48 
vitreous-enamelled, 51 
Tekke carpets and rugs, 69 
Thirteenth-century chests, 199 
Tiled bathrooms, 48 
Tiling, Rust’s vitreous, 49 
Timber houses, 12 
kiln-drying of, 18 
Tinos marble, 31 
Toilet glasses, 89, 90 
Tooled leather bindings, 9 
Tongue-and-groove panelling, 43 
Torrigiano, Pietro, 120, 130, 134 
Torrisany, Peter. See Torrigiano 
Tripod banner screens, 80 
furniture, 88 
tables, 88 
Tudor chairs, 160 
inlay, method of, 213 


| 
| 





oes) 


Tudor rose design in Lancashire chairs, 175 
stools, 160 
construction of, 162, 163 
strap-and-jewel work, 258 
wood panelling, 118-129 


| ‘Turkey carpets, 59-61 


rugs, 59 
Turkoman carpets, 69 


Turning-lathe, the, 164, 166, 190 
Types in furniture, 77 


| Upholstery, 178-179 


commencement of, 77 


Vacuum-cleaners, 54 
“Vanity ” tables, 88 
Variety, charm of, 3 
in oak furniture, 16 
the secret of successful furnish- 
ing, 17 
Varnishes for floors, 55 
Veneering, age of, 167 
Venetian window at No. 7, Soho Square, 


144, 146 


| Vicar’s Hall, Exeter, mantel at, 186 


sixteenth-century table 
at, 185, 186 
wainscotting at, 127 
Victoria and Albert Museum, bench from 
Barningham Hall in, 
163 
china niche in, 44 
deal panelling in, 141 
door from house at Clare 
in, 128 
doors in, 27 
six-panelled, in, 144 
Gothic screen in, 118 
the Waltham Room in, 
135-136 
woodwork from Clifford’s 
Inn in, 41 
Victorian architects, 14-15 
architraves, 15 
basements, 30-31 
bathrooms, lack of, 14 
ceilings, 15 
chimney-pieces, 14 
cleanliness, 15 
20 


306 


Victorian cornices, 15 
doors, 15 
“improvements,” 14 
kitchens, 14 
servant accommodation, inade- 
quate, 14 


skirtings, 1§ 

staircases, 30 

windows, I§ | 

“Vine ” or “ parchemin ” wood panelling, | 
119, 134 


Wainscotting, deal, 8 
at Lavenham, 127 
at. Vicar’s Pally Bxeter.127 
seventeenth-century, 40 
Wales, fifteenth-century woodwork in, 10 
Wall-brackets for lighting, 53 
furniture, 77-79, 84 
panelling. See also Wood panelling | 
proper function of, 39 
vitreous tiling, 50 
P2petsa 
Victorian, 15 
Walls, bathroom, 48 
defective, 46 
lining-paper for, 45 
treatment of, 45 
Walnut cabinets, elaborate interiors of, 293 
chairs, varieties of, 269 
chief drawback of, 259 
furniture, 16 
elaborate, 290 
intricate mitring on, 291 
seventeenth-century, in- 
dividuality of, 288 


| 


golden, 293 
‘* oyster-pieces,” 280 
panelling, 145 
period, 80, 178 
popularity of, 257 
rarity of, 258 
seventeenth-century, late, 280, 293 
veneers, foreign, 257 
Wardrobes, 77 
hanging, 90, 91 
Washstands, 92 
first appearance of, 88 


non-existent in the eighteenth | 





century, 46 | 


THE OLD-WORLD. HOUSE 


Water supply, 12 
Wax and friction polish, 8 
coloured, 43 
polish for red deal, 43 
Wealthy collector, the, 18 
** Weeding out ” in relation to rugs, 59 
Western Turkestan rugs, 69 


_ Westminster Abbey, large chest in, 182 


Hall, oak roof of, 155, 164, 195 
Wig stands, 92 
William and Mary period chairs, 168, 270 
Wiltshire, fifteenth-century woodwork of, 
Io 
Winchester Cathedral choir stall, canopies 
in, 164, 195 
Windows, Victorian, 15 


Windsor chairs, 174, 179 


| Wing chairs, 77 


| Wolsey’s apartments at Hampton Court, 


130, 134 
ceilings at Hampton Court, 134 
Wood panelling an innovation of Tudor 
period, 118 
aromatic cedar, 150 
Cheshire, 136 
** clinker-boarding,” 127 
deal, 143-144 
Derbyshire, 136 
Devonshire, 136 
earliest types of, 130 
East Anglian, 134, 136 
Elizabethan, 134 
Herefordshire, 136 
“ innér-trame, a a7 
Italian style in, 120 
Kentish, 136 


large panel, the first use 


of, 137 

linen-fold, 119-134 
development 
of, 121 
last phase of, 
134 
mahogany non-existent, 
146 
** parchemin ~ or vine, 
119, 134 


picture-hanging on, 
method of, 144 
pine, 145 


INDEX 207 


Wood panelling, quartering, 137 | Woodwork, Middle Ages, methods in, 116 
Renaissance, 120 Wren, 9 
seventeenth-century, 136 | Writing desks, 95-96 


Shropshire, 136 | tables, 82 
Somerset, 136 cylinder-fronted cabinet, 
stripping paint from, I 41 114 
types of, 118-151 | development of, 78-115 
Seve et Ole ae parchie= | eighteenth-century, 79 
man, ETO, 134-4 fall-front scrutoir, 98 
walnut, 145 | kidney, 113 
Wood-turning in early Restoration period, | pedestal, 79, 104 
F 289 | pull-out secretaire, 113 
Woodwork at Christchurch Priory, 134 Stuart period, -79 
Devonshire, supremacy of, 129 | tambour, IIo 


English, evolutionary peculiari- 
ties in, 274 | 
Golden Age of, 156 

fifteenth-century, 9 

in old houses 

at Rye, 133 

Italian Renaissance influence | Yorkshire chairs, 174, 178-179 

in, 134 | Yuruk carpets and rugs, 61 


Xestobium tessellatum, 155 




















wis 
»> 
=r, 
. 7 
® 
4 
« 
* 
“ 


~~. 
& 
a7 ~ 
apis 
ae 
ws 
s 
a 
‘ 
a 
: 
ca 
; 
. 
" 
“ne 


i ae ee 

Po oes aye, > “. 
2 eee oy 
: ah : er 


oq 
7 & 
‘ 
rs 
: 
= 
* 
a. e 
. ad : 
ay © 
a }* 
mt oo 
. . ss 
’ oe 
—_ - 
a 4 = 
" 
~ 
; . Pe 
i¢ 
3 
‘ an 
‘LG 
_ 
- 
— 
ce N 
thet 
<i 
+ 
ite 
i) a. 
. pee te 
: ,-~ a a 
4¢ ras 
. ‘ - 7  ® _— 
° ¥« " 
6 > F f 
ae ay 
£ _) J 











GETTY CENTER LIBRARY 


TEE 


3 3125 00758 6569 





MY 


oe 
a 


tA 


uo 
me 





